Bells silenced by thieves at park
VOLUNTEERS for a popular Newcastle park have launched an appeal to replace musical squares designed for disabled children after thieves ripped them out of the ground.
The ‘dancing bells’ were installed at Paddy Freeman’s Park as a play aid for visually impaired people, so they can hear bells when they put their feet on the squares.
But the children and their parents were left devastated when the brass squares were stolen in December – for the second time in less than two years.
Now, the Friends of Paddy Freeman’s have launched a fundraising appeal for £5,000 to replace them.
It comes straight after the group raised £6,000 to repair a pirate ship in the park which was falling to bits.
Chairman of the Friends of the park, Jim Patterson, said: “Every time we get a bit of money together, something else goes wrong.
“The council hasn’t got the money to keep replacing these expensive things so we’re now starting to raise funds again.”
Jim, who used to play in Paddy Freeman’s Park as a child, branded the thieves who “pinch metal for money” as “despicable”.
“They’re not nice people. I can’t believe you could put something there for disabled kids and someone would just take it,” he said.
“I just don’t understand people doing it – it’s not as if they’d get that much money for them.
“I don’t think they would have got much over £100.”
Jim said the Friends would be facing a bill of around £20,000 to put in more brass squares, so are planning to replace them with plastic ones instead.
“We have a bit of money left over from the appeal to replace the pirate ship but we still need about another £5,000.
“We don’t want to put the same material again but we still need to get proper quality stuff to keep the kids safe.”