Slough Council has made the biggest spending cuts in the UK on playgrounds over the past five years, slashing funding by over 150 percent, a new report has found.

The report from ESP Play revealed that children in some parts of the country have little access to high-quality outdoor play.

Data gathered showed that some councils had made significant cuts to spending, with Slough being dubbed the worst cutting 156 percent. 

The report concluded that lack of outdoor play can be detrimental to children’s mental and physical health and that government, councils, and developers all need to do more to ensure that safe, high-quality playgrounds are available for children.

Play England's Professor Helen Dodd said: “Children who spend more time playing, especially outdoors and adventurously, have better mental health and are more physically active.

“Children’s play opportunities are affected by the environments around them, with some environments facilitating active, adventurous, engaged play, and others discouraging play.

“It is therefore really important that children have access to places that support their play such as playgrounds.”

It comes as parents have said they would like to see the council spend more money on children's play areas.

Granville Park, Upton Court Part, and Salt Hill Park are amongst the parks most in need of money invested in new equipment.