Saturday 12 December 2009

Comments on changes to parks

Anne Garvey, from the Don't Make It Jesus Less Green pressure group, was unable to attend the AGM on December 3, but has asked if these comments on the changes to the parks be communicated.


I wondered , as I couldn’t make the meeting tonight, whether there would be any gap to express the view, which many people attached to the Don’t Make it Jesus Less Green group have made to me, that moving the playground would be a mistake.


Mothers have explained that they like the walk there, the fact that there is a ‘defensible space’ around it – not criss crossed by pedestrian traffic as at the other end and sunnier.

Others interested in Jesus Green express the view that the two sides of the swimming pool are now balanced and moving the playground would concentrate activity at one end, a shadier one.

Safety concerns for children- the propsed move end would bring the children nearer the pavilion which in any incarnation will be haunted by homeless drinkers, now separated from the children side. Also the move would bring the children nearer the water and the fascination of the weir, the river , the lock, an additional hazard now not visible to them.

Waste, a large majority of people took the view that this is simply unnecessary and a waste of public money.

Children at Park Street School, in the top two classes, with whom I had an hour’s consultation, told me that they would prefer some more exciting play equipment for their age group. Would it be a good idea to place THIS at the darker kiosk end and separate younger children who need supervision from older children who can go to the park alone and play? The link would be the skate park but it’s then TOO old for the late primary school children to use.

Safety concerns about the late night use of the skate park and undesirable males hanging about there, this from parents of teenage girls who go down there.

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