FOREST Fields, where I live, is a great place for a number of things. Takeaway spicy chicken is one. Knocking stereotypes on the head is another.

Like, you know that one about how these kids today never get out for any proper exercise?

Oooh you know what they're like, in there with their fancy video games and such. Not like back in our day, eh?

Well, let it be known that Back In Our Day is alive and well in my neighbourhood.

Some people know spring's coming by which flowers start blooming or which birds show up on the windowsill.

I can tell winter's ending because the junior cricketers are back out in the streets – tennis balls and makeshift bats get broken out at the slightest provocation.

A warm walk home from work through Forest Fields tends to turn me into an inadvertent substitute fielder in a half dozen cricket matches.

The kids are out there engaging in the sort of England-of-yore behaviour that would make the most cynical Back-In-My-Dayist misty eyed.

Another great thing about Forest Fields is the massive park we've got down at the bottom end.

Oh okay, The Forest recreation ground isn't just ours.

It belongs to everybody, particularly around Goose Fair, Bonfire Night, the Caribbean Carnival, etc.

But on a day-to-day basis it's our place. And, I'm happy to report, our place is getting a spruce up.

Improvements are already on the way thanks to £5.1 million from the National Lottery, City Council and local groups.

Now there's consultation over another set of improvements that will focus largely on the sporty bits at one end of the park.

This last piece of the puzzle won't get public funding, in the same way that an increasing number of local initiatives won't get public funding under the Government.

This Government, which seems so concerned about traditional families, hasn't quite cottoned on to the concept of what happens when places where traditional family activities take place become bottle-strewn funding-free wastelands.

But that's a topic for a different day. Possibly stepping into this particular breach are a number of local organisations including Djanogly City Academy and Notts County Cricket Club.

The presence of that second group gives me hope.

See, in addition to street cricket, neighbourhood kids (and, it's got to be said, more than a few neighbourhood grown-ups) tend to play makeshift wicket cricket.

This is where you go down to the rec, hunt out the most wicket-shaped patch of dirt you can find, and make do.

Days immediately following a big event such as Goose Fair seem to be the best for this – when there's no proper wicket, a massive lorry can be your best groundsman.

It's a make-do-and-mend attitude made necessary because there are no proper cricket facilities on the rec.

Head out on a weekend and you'll also see kids on bikes and skateboards practicing tricks and hurtling off whichever objects they can find. Build them a BMX or skate park? Hey, they've already figured out a DIY one.

And now we're into the public consultation period on what needs doing to the rest of the rec.

The "public consultation period" is one of those mysterious beasts of government, sometimes passing through areas like a faint mist, leaving residents in its wake surprised to learn it ever happened.

Other times, it's an exercise in codifying common sense. Let's hope that's what is about to happen on the rec.

Because when you head down to the rec today (or, more accurately, when the weather starts to warm), you'll see that the folks who use it already know perfectly well what they want to use it for.

They want to take their kids to the playground – and two excellent playgrounds already exist.

They want to have a kickaround or a picnic – on football pitches or well-maintained, tree-lined parkland areas that already exist.

And from the looks of it, they want to play cricket, skate and bike, and generally do what healthy, energetic young people do while some of us are busy complaining about how they never go outside.

So let's not make this too complicated.

To learn more about improvements to The Forest recreation ground and to make your opinions known, call 0115 9708200 or visit ewww.partnershipcouncil.co.uk.