Smart instead of bans: This is how Weyarn wants to keep its playgrounds clean

Created: 09/22/2022, 18:28

By: Christine Merk

The Weyarn municipal council does not yet consider prohibition signs to be appropriate to ensure correct behavior on the playgrounds in the municipal area.

© Thomas Plettenberg

Stay friendly: In order to prevent a mess at playgrounds, Weyarn relies on friendly instructions instead of prohibition signs.

Weyarn - smokers who throw away their cigarette butts, late visitors who leave beer bottles behind, or even free-roaming dogs - none of this is welcome on playgrounds.

However, the Weyarn municipal councils cannot accept bans.

They want to encourage reasonable behavior with friendly signs.

It's similar to dog owners: the vast majority of them clear away their pets' piles, a small proportion don't bother and cause a lot of trouble.

There are just as many unreasonable people on playgrounds.

Whether they should be stopped with a playground ordinance and whether that is the right way and works at all, that was the topic at the meeting of the Weyarn municipal council.

Mayor Leonhard Wöhr (CSU) explained the problem.

Again and again, visitors would smoke in playgrounds, which is a "bad role model" on the one hand.

Some also throw away the cigarette butts carelessly - a danger for small children who can swallow them.

So should smoking be banned, as well as drinking alcohol or free-roaming dogs?

You can say bans, but you also have to control yourself

The mayor made no secret of the fact that he could make friends with a playground regulation, which is the basis for this.

However, many local councilors had doubts as to whether prohibition signs that should be put up are the right way to go.

"If something is banned, then you have to enforce it," said Second Mayor Franz Demmelmeier (SPD).

But that doesn't have to be done by the community, Wöhr explained.

Each playground visitor could address someone else's behavior and then have a basis for it.

And if someone doesn't understand and smokes, for example, you can even call the police.

Anian Rutz (UWG) also found that one could refer to a sign: "There are also citizens who stick to signs, and if someone goes out of the playground to smoke,

Administration should now take care of the content of the signs

Betty Mehrer (SPD) considered a playground statute to be useful, "even if there are always some who don't stick to it".

Anschi Hacklinger (Greens) finally brought up an alternative to prohibition signs.

She would have seen "smart signs" that encourage correct behavior in a nice way.

The proposal was ultimately approved by the majority.

"Perhaps you can reach people better that way," hoped Angelika Viellechner (FW).

Rutz also found this alternative to be a “good compromise”.

There are playgrounds that are not demarcated, he interjected, for example on the Klosteranger.

"If someone is drinking a beer or a spritz on the bench in the evening, that's not really a bad thing."

Against two votes, the municipal council decided that the administration should develop a proposal for a positive sign that encourages correct behavior.

Mayor Wöhr and Mehrer would have been in favor of a statute.

They commented on their "defeat" with humor.

"My former job comes through," said ex-policeman Wöhr.

Mehrer added: "And my grandmother, who goes to the playground with the grandchildren."