The play area of a Middlesbrough park has been labelled as a “complete death trap” by an angry resident.
Local Simon Templar has taken issue with the state of Stewart Park’s play area, saying that Middlesbrough Council does not care about it “one bit”, compared to other councils in the local area who are doing their parks up.
The 47 year old spoke of cones at Stewart Park and tape blocking off play equipment. On a visit to the park by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), it was clear that the tape would not provide much of a deterrent to young children who would be shorter than the cordens surrounding numerous attractions.
While the majority of the play area was in use, the few pieces of equipment that were taped off were a real blight on the wider park. Local ward cllrs have said that they have been pushing for items to be fixed, but are repeatedly advised that the council are waiting for parts. On their part, Middlesbrough Council said they are aware of the damage and the equipment will be repaired as soon as possible, with a wider playground improvement scheme in the coming months.
Mr Templar invited the LDRS to visit the park and see the state of it “because one day you’ll be back again taking photos of a child that got injured in the park”. He added: “They’ve removed the trampolines, put cones around it and filled it with those water bollards, that you get to block off streets – they just threw them in there.
“This is the council that takes hundreds of thousands of pounds off of the people of the area, and they’d rather spend their money on more community wardens, rather than fixing our parks. Unlike the rival councils, Stockton, who is actually doing their parks up and patrolling them and making sure they don’t get damaged.”
Mr Templar, who works in the Ministry of Defence as a health and safety officer, highlighted the thousands of people that will use the play park every year, and said he was “disgusted” by the state of the park. He has two children – two year old Hugo and six year old Tanis, describing kids of that age as “quite accident prone”.
Mr Templar lives on the Bracken Grange estate, about a five to ten minute drive and about a 30 minute walk to the park. He explained he had been living in Middlesbrough for about three years and had previously lived in Stockton for two years.
“If my daughter wants to go to a play area, I have to drive out and into Stockton, where the parks are at least more safe. The thing is they put in a new ride for the kids [in Stewart Park], but they didn’t fix everything else around it… the whole thing needs bulldozing to be honest with you, starting again.” He said if the park was in a better state, he’d visit all the time “because it’s convenient”. Mr Templar reiterated his worry not just for his own kids but for others too.
He added: “Broken pieces of wood stumps which surrounded the sand that are dangerous and sticking out, shards of it, you know. Just one slip from a child on anything and that’s going to impale them.” Mr Templar also complained about the underlay of the sandpit being uprooted, causing a “trip hazard”.
During an exploration of the park, the problems were all too clear to see – three attractions taped off, although not very effectively. One grandparent could be heard in passing saying to a family member: “Oh, everything’s closed.” Grandma of three, Maureen Plunkett, had a chat with the LDRS, while pushing her grandson on one of the available swings.
The 73 year old mentioned going to Preston Park instead, or even going to the Redcar Front, which takes longer to get to, as Ms Plunkett lives locally in Middlesbrough – “just down the road” from Stewart Park. She described it as a “nice park” but thought that teenagers were to blame for the damage, not only to equipment in the play park, but also burn damage in the neighbouring picnic area – “they’re too bored, there’s nothing for them to do”, she explained.
Three year old Charlie was talking about how much he wanted to go on the trampolines, with Ms Plunkett explaining that the trampolines were his favourite before they closed. She explained that what was thought to be one end of a zipline was actually a tyre swing that was missing the all-important tyre component.
The majority of attractions were unhindered and in use in the park, but the baby swing, trampolines and roundabout were all cordoned off. A newly installed rope swing was in use as well as the spider climbing frame and one of the tyre swings, along with a seesaw and other items. The main boat attraction (including a slide) in the central sand pit was in use although there were broken wooden stumps surrounding it. Just after midday, there were lots of kids playing on most of the available equipment.
Stewart Park is located in the Marton East ward. When contacted for comment, Marton East Independent Group Cllrs Dorothy Davison and Jason McConnell said: “Honestly, we’ve been pushing for that equipment to be sorted for a long time now and we always get advised that they’re just waiting for parts.
“That park is used more than any park in the Middlesbrough area, it’s always full of children. It seems to be a thing about parks because we had a problem with our park on Cypress Road, and it took ages to get that sorted, but we eventually did get it sorted.” The cllrs said that issues with Stewart Park seem to be going on “forever” and when asked how long the equipment had been cordoned off for, the answer was “months”, adding: “It needs to be fixed as soon as possible.”
A Middlesbrough Council spokesman said: “We are aware of the damage and the equipment will be repaired as soon as possible. In the coming months, the Council will embark on a wider playground improvement scheme so our children and young people can enjoy these much loved spaces.”
