Melbourne City Council gives funding lifeline to adventure playground

The Venny adventure playground in the Melbourne suburb if Kensington will be saved from having to slash its services under a Melbourne City Council plan to provide emergency support.

The 'drop-in' centre for children at risk at JJ Holland Park, is a free communal backyard for children from public housing estates and surrounding areas and runs programs in the evenings and weekends.

The Federal Government allocated $125,994 to the program for 2013/14 but cited the budget deficit and debt for its decision to cut funding in 2014-15.

Melbourne Councillor Richard Foster said the organisation approached them about the threat to their essential services, such as programs supporting at-risk children, if money could not be found.

The Council, which already partly pays for The Venny, had already committed to $149,914 for the next financial year.

Councillor Foster stated "it’s essential programs like these dealing with high-risk kids continue because many of them have already suffered numerous breaches of trust over their very short lives'

“What the Federal Government had done was basically ripped the money off them. There was no time to get the money elsewhere.”