Petition for playground fence

Jewish families in St Kilda East are calling for Glen Eira Council to install fencing around Green Meadows Gardens playground, citing safety concerns for their young children.

A Change.org petition has attracted 159 signatures requesting protective fencing at the playground, which sits between two roads, and installation of Shabbat-friendly toilets that don’t require electricity.

A local mother who preferred not to be named, who has two-year-old twins and a five-year-old, told The AJN that Saturday afternoon park visits after synagogue services have become stressful for Jewish mothers managing multiple children.

“I’ve got twins. One runs one way, one runs the other. So I cannot even keep up because one’s running on the road and the other one is running out of the park the other way. And I’ve got to watch the five-year-old. So it’s almost crazy to go to the park,” she said.

She explained that many Jewish mothers face similar challenges with “three or four kids and all different ages”, making supervision difficult without a fence around the playground area.