Petition launched to upgrade Glasgow's Queen's Park playground

Queen’s Park Playground North is extremely popular with families in the area.

Sean Kerwin, who lives across the road from the park, attends the playground almost every day with his kids, who are three and five.

Frustrated by the damaged platforms, broken through trampolines, chained swings, missing boulders, and uneven playground mats, Mr Kerwin has started a petition to call for an upgrade of the facility.

Mr Kerwin said the play equipment in Queen's Park hasn't been upgraded in a long time

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The 38-year-old radio producer said the playground would be “critical” for kids living in the area and urged the council to use its £1.5m Parks and Open Space Fund to spruce it up.

He added: “The state of the play equipment has just gone downhill and downhill since lockdowns.

“I don't know when that park was last upgraded, but it must have been a long, long time ago.

“It’s ridiculous, there's so many things broken, and while it does get patched up now and again, it’s not really acceptable anymore.

“It's set up in an area where children probably live in flats, and don't have much outdoor space, so it's actually a really critical piece of local infrastructure, it’s packed every day.”

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The Govanhill area, which directly faces Queen’s Park, is among the 10% most deprived in the country, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020.

Mr Kerwin is also urging Glasgow City Council to install inclusive play equipment in the park, so that all children can enjoy the playground.

He said: “If you go to other parks, you see accessible equipment that would fit a wheelchair, in Queen’s Park there’s not even a sniff of this.

“There is also no division of equipment between age groups, so my 5-year-old could be climbing a frame that is also used by teenagers and there are no facilities safe for toddlers.

“We need new, appropriate and inclusive equipment that everyone can use.”

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At the time of writing, Mr Kerwin’s petition has reached more than 300 in just two days.

A parent commented: “It’s vital for children to have a safe and engaging local play area and our play park drastically needs funding to meet local children's needs.”

A second wrote: “It’s been needing an upgrade for years but now is paramount as its broken and hazardous.”

Another said: “There are so many kids playing there every day, it now looks really sad, and dangerous. it really deserves better.”

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “We have an on-going programme of repair and renovation for the city’s play areas and we always look to target our resources as effectively as possible.

“Our play areas are checked on a routine basis and if any issues are identified we will always take steps to ensure safety is protected.

“The Parks and Open Space Fund is allocated to the twenty-three Area Partnerships across the city and each individual partnership will ultimately decide how their allocation from the fund is spent.

“We anticipate initial proposals will go before the partnerships this summer and we expect community councils, Friends Of groups and others to be consulted on what projects should receive investment in each area.”

You can sign the petition here.