Council leaders have announced plans to introduce zip wires, tree houses and large climbing structures in playgrounds across the country in order to put adventure back into children's playtime.

Research from the Local Government Association (LGA) has revealed that councils are including an increasing amount of adventure equipment as part of a scheme to build or refurbish more than 3,500 playgrounds by 2011, which has been funded by a £235m funding package outlined in the government's Children's Plan. Local authorities are also introducing a number of holiday play schemes, including BMX biking, surfing and circus skills, as part of efforts to end what the LGA has labelled a "cotton wool culture".

LGA chair Margaret Eaton said: "Children benefit from physical activity and even some rough and tumble. We do our youngsters no favours by wrapping them up in cotton-wool, which can prevent them from developing skills they'll need in their adult life. "Town halls are determined not to bow to the compensation culture. The idea councils are dominated by health and safety rules is being exposed for the myth it has always been."

Peter Cornall, head of leisure safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), added: "RoSPA believes that children can learn valuable life-long lessons, particularly about risks and how to deal with them, when they are given the chance to get out and about. "Parents have to accept that their children may get injured and that bumps and grazes are not serious and are all part of growing up."