has told a grandmother-of-10 to pull down a £300 trampoline she bought for local children to enjoy and "get them off their iPads and PlayStations". Kind-hearted Lorraine Roberts, 67, purchased the popular play equipment for youngsters on her estate in Southampton, Hants, and erected it on a disused council-owned common area in February.

enjoying bouncing around on the gymnastic plaything for months, Mrs Roberts was stunned when the local authority told her she must take it down "in 24 hours" after a complaint from an unknown resident. A "disappointed" Mrs Roberts said "Everybody loved it. Kids were on it all day, every day. It keeps them off their iPads and PlayStations. They can be noisy on it but they're going to be noisy either way and they have to be off it by 8pm."

Mrs Roberts added that she could "always hear if there's any issues going on" as she lived only a "couple of feet" away from the 16-foot-wide structure.

She added: "I didn't know anyone had any issue with it. I thought the neighbours were happy with it."

Southampton City Council said while it understood "the importance of outdoor play" it deemed the trampoline as a "significant health and safety risk".

But Mrs Roberts said residents were responsible for their own children and not the local authority, and that now the youngsters have nothing to play on outside.

She said: "I was quite shocked when [the council] said they'd received a complaint from one of the neighbours. Why didn't they approach us?

"They said it was a health and safety issue but I said you're not responsible, we are. We take responsibility for the children. They said it's got to come down. I said no and she said if you don't take it down we will.

"I was really disappointed for the children's sake. I just like the children having something to play with. The complaint was about the noise and mess but you're still going to get that without the trampoline but now they won't have anywhere to play.

"The council should've come round, had a meeting with the whole close and asked what we all thought instead of just saying 'take it down'. There was no discussion. We want to see if we can get this overturned. The children are all upset by this."

Mrs Roberts has now taken the trampoline down after the complaint last month.

A spokesperson for Southampton City Council said: "Shared areas of council-owned grass within our communities are spaces for everyone to enjoy safely.

"While we understand the importance of outdoor play, play equipment such as trampolines present a significant health and safety risk, and cannot be safely monitored around the clock.

"For this reason, we do not permit their use in these shared areas. The residents are within walking distance of two parks which provide good access to play facilities.

"We are aware that this type of play equipment can be expensive, which is why we sent letters to the community to give the owner the chance to collect the trampoline themselves."

According to a previous study by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) around 13,000 injuries occur each year from trampolines, however, the society also found that there are approximately 40,000 injuries to children on playgrounds each year which result in a hospital visit.