Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Play park’s future undecided
Three options are being considered for the future of a play park plagued by drug-taking: Sell it off, leave it as it is or do it up.
Canterbury councillors met on Monday night and discussed the play area in Black Griffin Lane, which consists of just two benches and a red scooter on a spring.
Laying the three options before them senior environment officer Rebecca Booth said: “It’s a doorstep play area and its catchment area is 100 metres.
“It is limited in terms of its play value and is a potential candidate for disposal. It is not classed as public open space.”
Ms Booth insisted that the play park’s future is still “up for debate”, but she said it had been plagued by anti-social behaviour and drug-taking.
The three options are to keep it as it is, to invest in its refurbishment or to decommission it.
Ms Booth added that the council had invested in the upgrade of the Toddlers’ Cove play area in 2014.
Northgate Labour councillor Jean Butcher told the meeting at the Westgate Hall that losing Black Griffin Lane would be a shame.
“This piece of land could be put to other uses such as an exercise area for older people,” she said.
“It might be a nice area for local people to use as a place to meet and take ownership of and to keep it as public space.
“These small pockets are needed in Canterbury in order to prevent it becoming a concrete jungle.”
The issue was discussed at the Canterbury Area Member Panel after a Westgate ward resident became concerned that the play area would be lost to development, most likely housing.
But Barton ward Conservative Steve Williams warned that pressure to build new houses means that the city council has to identify potential plots for redevelopment.
He told the panel: “We have got to look at the bigger picture and we have to make the most efficient use of land.”
A report on the position of all open spaces within the city walls will be presented at the panel’s next meeting, which will take place on a date yet to be set.
Should the Black Griffin Lane play park be made available to developers? Email kentishgazette@thekmgroup. co.uk or write to Gazette House, Estuary View Business Park, Whitstable, CT5 3SE.