Play areas in urgent need of attention
COUNCILLORS CALL FOR SWIFT ACTION
COUNCILLORS have called for urgent action to replace ‘rapidly deteriorating’ equipment in Newcastle’s playgrounds.
Newcastle City Council announced earlier this year that it would be spending £1 million to fix up and improve play areas across the city, using profits from its stake in Newcastle Airport.
Details of how and where that £1 million will be spent are expected to be revealed in September, but members of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee say swifter action is needed ahead of the summer holidays.
Newcastle is also set to get two new multi-pitch football “hubs” – at Blakelaw Park and Bullocksteads in Kingston Park – after being accepted into the Parklife programme for grassroots football.
Coun Marion Talbot said: “It is amazing that we have Parklife. The playgrounds money is great too, but I am worried about the timetable. “There is some very poor equipment that should possibly be taken out now, if it is not repaired. “We are coming up to the summer holidays where there will be a lot more use of the parks.” Coun Wendy Taylor added: “It is great that we have got this money coming in to sort out sports facilities, but I am particularly interested in play areas outside of parks. Equipment has been deteriorating rapidly and it is difficult to find funding to deal with that.”
Christine Herriot, the council’s chief operational officer, told the committee that playgrounds are inspected on a weekly basis and that the council has a budget for general wear-and-tear maintenance, but no further funding beyond that to replace equipment.
She added that unsafe items will either be removed or cordoned off, but committee chair Coun Anita Lower questioned the effectiveness of fencing used to prevent access to damaged equipment.
She said: “If it’s fencing then that lasts about 15 minutes in Kingston Park before the kids take it down and carry on. We have argued for a long time that things need to be taken out.”
Coun Lower, leader of the council’s Lib Dem opposition, added that new equipment suitable for disabled children should be installed in the city’s playgrounds.
There is some very poor equipment that should possibly be taken out now, if it is not repaired Coun Marion Talbot