To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much funding the Government have released to local authorities within the Tyne and Wear area for the maintenance of existing children's play areas and the establishment of new ones in the last 12 months.

Our public consultations have shown a consistent and strong demand from children and families for better outdoor play spaces near to where they live. In the Children's Plan we committed to invest an additional £235 million to fund up to 3,500 new and refurbished public play areas nationally, to transform local provision.

As part of this programme of investment from 2008-09 to 2010-11, all local authorities will be designated as play Pathfinders or Playbuilders. On average all play Pathfinder authorities will receive £2 million capital funding and £500,000 revenue funding over the course of the programme and Playbuilder authorities will receive around £1 million capital and £45,000 revenue funding. Play Pathfinder authorities will develop a minimum of 28 play areas and a new staffed adventure playground, while Playbuilder authorities will develop a minimum of 22 play areas by 2011. This includes both new play areas and significant refurbishment of existing play areas.

There are currently two play Pathfinder authorities (North Tyneside and Sunderland) and two Playbuilder authorities (Gateshead and Newcastle) in the Tyne and Wear area. The following tables show the capital and revenue funding allocations each of these four authorities will receive for 2008-09.

As part of the launch of the Play Strategy on 10 August we announced the next wave of our capital programme roll-out. For the Tyne and Wear area this means that from April 2009 one of the existing Playbuilders, Newcastle, will become a play Pathfinder and the fifth authority in the area not currently receiving funding, South Tyneside, will become a Playbuilder.