Disappointment as new play area vandalised again

A PLAY park has been vandalised twice in the space of two weeks — before the £100,000 facility has even opened.

About £108,000 was raised over a three-year period for the Powrie play park next to Findhorn Street in Fintry.

But in the last couple of weeks there have been two instances of fire-raising to a swing and a roundabout at the park, which was due to open this summer.

Now there are fears the park will be unable to be completed as there is a serious lack of funds to repair the damage.

A statement from the community council said: “Fintry Community Council is extremely disappointed to see the as yet unfinished Powrie play park has now been vandalised twice.

“It has taken three years to raise all the funds needed and is now it is very likely we will struggle to complete the park as we have no extra funding to cover this damage.

“If anybody sees any antisocial behaviour in the park we would appreciate if you could contact the police or community safety wardens.”

Ron Neave, chairman of the community council, admitted as much as £1,000 could be required to fix the damage.

He said: “I’ve been up to the park to see what damage has been caused. We were hoping there would be no vandalism at all, but that’s two cases of it in about nine days which is really disappointing.

“Here we are having raised more than £100,000 and this is what we get back for doing that. I’ve got a meeting with the architect and we’ll see how much money is needed to make it right.

“We’ve tried to involve local children so they see it as their park and therefore wouldn’t want to damage it. It could just be one or two people who have caused this damage but we may have to find £1,000 to right what they’ve done.”

The damaged swing.