Moray Council apologises over Elgin play park wrangle near Greenwards Primary School
A total of 262 protestors signed a petition within just 48 hours of council workmen removing equipment from a children’s play park.
Residents were shocked when Moray Council began taking away the equipment last Tuesday without any prior warning.
The background to the issue is that, earlier in September, a new play park opened at Greenwards Primary after the school raised £25,000 to pay for it.
Moray Council has subsequently removed play equipment from a second play park, which it owns itself and is sited only a few yards outside the school gates.
Local mum Tracey Cook started the petition at lunchtime on Tuesday and quickly received support from many local residents.
She said: “It’s a really popular play park.
“It seems such a wrong thing to do, especially when there’s all this concern about kids being obese and playing on computers all the time.”
The parents accept that the council-owned play park contained one item of equipment – a tube slide – which was dented and, therefore, potentially harmful.
However, they are unhappy that two slides, a tunnel and a balance beam have also been removed.
In addition, they say they were originally told all the rest of the equipment would also be taken away.
Jade Archibald, who’s in the process of adopting a young child, said: “I opened my curtains last Tuesday morning to find the play park equipment being removed.
“Nobody in this area knew anything about it. It was a complete shock.”
A Moray Council spokesperson said: “Some play equipment at Greenwards/Cockmuir Place has been removed following our regular monthly inspection and a third party inspection highlighted significant deterioration making it unsafe for use.
“The equipment that can be left has been made safe and our play sufficiency assessment shows there is a new playpark for ages 5-12 at Greenwards that is available outwith school hours.
“However, we’re aware that planned engagement with the local community didn’t take place and we will rectify that as we move forward when considering options for replacing removed equipment, potentially with items suitable for 0-5 years, who are not catered for currently.
“We apologise to the residents nearby for missing a vital step of communication out from the process of removing unsafe equipment and assure them that we have learned from this experience.”
The petition on change.org currently has 325 signatures.
