Vandalised playground receives donations
The community of Collooney have embarked on a fundraising mission to raise €10,000 for its recently vandalised playground. The playground which has been open to the community for the past seven years was discovered badly damaged on the weekend of November 8th last. Broken glass had been placed ‘maliciously’ all over the equipment on slides, inside the tunnels and all over the ground. Some of the playground’s equipment has also been damaged. As a result of the damage the playground has been forced to close until such a time as the area can be cleaned and repaired. Specialist equipment will be required to repair and clean the playground facilities.
Gardaí and a forensics team attended the playground after the discovery was made and took samples of the glass and door to door calls have been made.
Speaking to The Sligo Champion about the vandalism, member of the Collooney Village Redevelopment committee, Daniel Gallagher, said broken glass had been maliciously placed on the slide, the tunnel, climbing frames, along with broken bottle necks placed on the ground.
Due to the specialist soft play surface in the playground the glass cannot be easily swept up, and according to Mr Gallagher, will require specialist cleaning.
“When we saw the damage that was done the committee as a whole took the decision that we were going to have to close it until further notice due to health and safety.”
Mr Gallagher said the playground was something the community had been fighting for, for years and it was a facility that was funded by the community.
“Only for the community it wouldn’t be there and it’s unfortunate that someone or some group had decided they were going to vandalise it,” said Mr Gallagher.
Gallagher said people in the community are angry and upset with what has been done to the facility.
“They want the guards to find out who did it and they want them held to account.”
In order to prevent something like this from reoccurring, fundraising for the installation of lights and CCTV at the playground is taking place. In less than a week over €1,300 has been raised.
Mr Gallagher said people in the community want those responsible for the vandalism to pay for the repair works when they are apprehended.
With not just people from the community donating funds, Gallagher said people from across Sligo and further afield have been digging deep to ensure the playground is opened again soon.
“We’re not going to let the people that did this put us down, as a committee Collooney Village Redevelopment are going to keep working and work for the betterment of the town. We’re going to overcome this and we will get the playground back open again.”