Wandsworth Council has defended its proposals to charge an admission fee to an adventure playground in London's Battersea Park at weekends for a four-month trial period.

The local authority has announced that it plans to pilot the £2.50 charge at the specialist site, which offers a number of supervised activities and has fully-trained staff on duty. A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said: "It is the size and scale of this centre, the challenging nature of its play equipment and the fact that it requires fully trained staff on duty to keep children safe that marks it out from others."

It is one of three adventure playgrounds in the borough, with the other two - York Gardens and Southfields - to remain free of charge. The proposal was criticised in Parliament by Sharon Hodgson, Washington and Sunderland West's Labour MP, as being "mean-spirited".

Education secretary Michael Gove responded: "We want to ensure that children have the opportunity to play and enjoy play without fees or bureaucracy getting in the way."