Furious Glasgow parents to protest over condition of Queen's Park play area

People in communities bordering Queen's Park will assemble at the Playground North on Saturday, June 11, to demand clarity from the council over overdue works to upgrade the play area. 

Glasgow City Council closed the playground last month, citing health and safety reasons.

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Pictures taken by dad-of-two Sean Kerwin show the condition of the playpark ahead of the closure.

It came after dad-of-two Sean Kerwin started a petition to get dangerous broken down equipment fixed, which garnered more than 1,100 signatures.

Now, parents claim the council told them there is no timeframe for carrying out the works and reopening the area, after it failed to properly maintain it.

Mr Kerwin told the Glasgow Times: "Since I started the petition, the playpark has been chained up. 

"I found out through the community council that there is no time scale to reopen it.

"We want our playpark back open and fixed.

"They won't talk to us, I've asked them what's going on for some clarification and they've not responded.

"We need to make sure we're being heard so we organised with other parents to hold a wee protest."

Pictures taken by dad-of-two Sean Kerwin show the condition of the playpark ahead of the closure

Mr Kerwin said previous statements from the council reassured parents that it makes "regular safety inspections of our play areas". 

However, the equipment was left in a state of disrepair, with damaged platforms, broken through trampolines, chained swings, missing boulders, and uneven playground mats.

Now, a notice on the playground's gates reads: "The area has been closed on health and safety grounds and we are hoping to make repairs, where possible, as an interim measure until such times as a full refurbishment of the area is carried out."

Pictures taken by dad-of-two Sean Kerwin show the condition of the playpark ahead of the closure

Mr Kerwin added: "I'm not sure how we went from these regular inspections and everything being fine, to then now closing it.

"They've barely done any maintenance on it, any repairs were done after problems had been highlighted, but all they're doing is hotchpotch patch-up jobs.

"They've let it deteriorate to this extent over years, a barista in Shawlands told me she used to use this playpark as a kid and it's just never changed, it's been left to rot."

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The 38-year-old, who lives across the road from the park, used to attend the playground almost every day with his kids, who are three and five.

He said the playground would be “critical” for kids living in the area.

“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.”

Pictures taken by dad-of-two Sean Kerwin show the condition of the playpark ahead of the closure

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.

A spokesperson for the council said: “We are very sorry that the play area by Balvicar Street is currently closed off.

“Safety issues with the equipment were identified during a recent, routine inspection and clearly we take public safety extremely seriously.

“Our parks team is working to repair the equipment where ever possible and we are hopeful equipment will be back in use in the coming weeks.

“The play area has been earmarked for refurbishment and the Southside Central Area Partnership this week agreed to a £20,000 investment for the play area as part of our Parks and Open Spaces Fund.

“We are also looking to secure additional funding from other sources so that a full refurbishment of the play area can go ahead.

“We will be consulting with the community through the Queen’s Park working group on how work to update and renovate the play area should proceed.”

You can sign the petition to improve the playground here.