Fury over state of Glasgow's Pollokshaws Ashtree play park

Pollokshaws resident Lynn McCord took her three granddaughters, aged nine, eight and six, to her local playpark in Ashtree Park on Tuesday.

However, the family quickly decided to leave after realising most of the equipment was unusable, broken and dirty.

Pictures show a spring rocker with missing seats, swings reduced to a thin strip of rubber and a swing-like apparatus with missing parts, as well as overgrown grass and a soft floor covered in leaves and weeds.

Grandmother Lynn McCord, 57, is highlighting the state of Ashtree play park in Pollokshaws.

A four-way spring rocker with broken seats at Pollokshaws' Ashtree Park

A swing-like apparatus missing pieces has been left a bare frame.

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The 57-year-old grandmother, who lives opposite Ashtree Park, said: “That park is just diabolical as far as I’m concerned.

“It’s overgrown, the soft floor is all eroded and dirty, when it rains it’s just mud, another apparatus has got nothing on it, it’s just a frame.

“The swings, I don’t know if the rubber has eroded but it almost looks like bite marks.

“Another piece of equipment was supposed to have pieces hanging down for kids to sit and swing across. Since they came off about five years ago, they never put them back, it’s just a bare frame.

“I was in there yesterday for about ten minutes and then I said to my granddaughters, ‘let’s just leave, I don’t want you to play in here it’s too dirty’.

“If that was a workplace, it would be shut for health and safety.”

Lynn said the swings' rubber seat have eroded and almost look like bite marks.

The ground is uneven and dangerous for kids

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Lynn, who is a carer to her elderly mother, said many families with kids live in the area, so the park would be well used.

However, they face having to travel to other parks as the Ashtree play park would be unsafe.

According to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020, Pollokshaws is in the 10% most deprived areas in Scotland.

The grass at the park is also overgrown.

Kids in the area face having to travel to other parks in the city.

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Lynn added: “Not only it is dangerous for the kids, it’s disheartening because it’s been like that for years. Since they put it up they’ve done nothing to it.

“It just makes me feel disgusted because we’re being promised there will be investment in kids’ future, but I don’t see any of that.

“What I see here is just deprivation and a play park left to rot.

“If you’re a low-income family, like my son, who’s a single parent, if he wants to take his daughters out, he’s got to take a bus to a different park, and he’s still not got the free bus travel for them.

“Now it’s the summer holidays and they’ve got nowhere to play.”

Locals took to the comments in a community Facebook group after Lynn posted a video where she denounced the state of the park.

One resident wrote: “Like everything else in the Shaws falling apart, we had harder times growing up back in the 70s but was never like that, very sad indeed.”

Another commented: “Like a video from Chernobyl! Awful.”

A third said: “Just sprayed with weedkiller and left. Sad. Also very lazy. Health and safety is a major concern with those swings.”

A fourth comment read: “Most small parks are like that unfortunately, I just take my grandkids to Rouken Glen, which is a few miles from me and by far a better park.”

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A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: “Arrangements are in place to inspect the play park as soon as possible and assess the condition of the equipment.”