Listen to mayor Dorothy Thornhill. Her council has just banned parents from watching their own children at two council play areas in Watford. Quoted in the Watford Observer this evidently simple-minded woman says, "Sadly, in today's climate, you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's playground."

Instead of parents being able to watch and play with their own and other people's children at the Harwoods and Harebreaks recreation grounds, vetted council staff known as "play rangers" will be in charge. The mayor says that this enforces government policy.

Actually that's not true because no government policy has yet determined that parents may not supervise their own children in a playground. It seems possible that the mayor and her appalling council may be in breach of article 8 of the Human Rights Act – the right to family life. A mother of three named Rebekah Makinson was quoted by reporter Neil Skinner as saying: "Banning parents from an open access playground, I feel, is a breach of our personal freedom."

She is right. This is a fundamental breach of rights, but almost as serious is the offence to common sense. The council pretends that it is forced into this position to protect children under the new vetting and barring scheme but as parents point out, the number of kids using the play areas and the range of ages means that some parents want to keep on eye on the children. Makinson said: "We have used Harwoods since I was a child and my mother stayed with me. It has always had a fantastic community atmosphere. Even with the excellent staff employed it is ridiculous to assume that three staff members can safeguard the high volume of children that currently use the playground."

I had a free-range childhood with almost no supervision and I can see the point of allowing children to play away from overprotective parents. But the critical issue here is that parents' right are being trampled on by this new atmosphere of fear and suspicion, brought about by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, a government that increasingly thinks it knows better than parents and local authorities that are keen to use any new power offered to them, however mad or tyrannical its application.

When I called the council, the press officer made the usual allegation that the reporter had got his facts wrong but then could not detail a single inaccuracy. In fact it turned out that his story was pretty much spot on. The council spokeswoman was keen to point out that the policy meant that if no parents were allowed into the two play areas it reduced the risk of adults wandering into the playground.

If parents want to watch their children they should damned well be allowed to do so. No officially sanctioned "play ranger" should have supervisory rights over a child in a public "open access" playground that in any way tops the child's parents' rights.