Play Valley Sheffield: Indoor children's play centre goes cashless after break-in

A popular children's play centre in Sheffield has taken the decision to go cashless after a break-in.

Play Valley Sheffield, on Coleford Road in Darnall, has soft play and role play facilities, an indoor sports court and a cafe serving hot and cold food. It boasts an average rating of 4.4 stars out of five on Google reviews.

It announced on Monday, November 6 that there had been another break-in over the weekend and it was no longer accepting cash, but it said there was no minimum spend on cars and it has contactless and also accepted all forms of mobile payment.

Posting on Facebook, the business said: "Following a break in at the weekend, we are now entirely cashless. Sadly, this is not the first break in we have experienced.

"We are a family business and absolutely nothing is more important to us than the safety of our staff. It is for that reason we have made the decision to withdraw the use of cash from the centre."

Not everyone agreed with the decision, with one person commenting that some other businesses had 'gone under after refusing cash payments', and another asking 'when (the) connection (has) gone what will you do?'.

But the play centre responded that cash sales had dwindled over the past few years and now made up less than 10 per cent of its turnover there, largely due to the introduction of an online booking system. It added that it was already cashless at its other locations and had been since Covid.