In last weeks Wirral Globe, there was a letter published from a lady called Clare. The letter referred to the disgraceful closure of Linear Park childrens play area, and asking for help to set up a ‘Friends Group’. You can read her letter by clicking HERE. I have sent the following response to the Globe, hopefully Clare will contact me, and we can work together, along with others to try to bring this much needed play area back into use.
I read with interest the letter from Clare regarding the closure of Linear Park Play Area in Moreton. ‘Help me form friends group to save park’ (Globe Wednesday 4th November.) First and foremost, I, and my colleagues are happy to offer any support Clare needs in helping to set up a Friends Group, so Clare please contact me on 07803 614418, or via email chrisblakeley@wirral.gov.uk
It goes I without saying that I agree entirely with her thoughts and comments, and along with my colleagues I have been campaigning hard to get this park brought back into use. It seems totally crazy to me that the Council insists, through a section 106 legal agreement that a developer provides a play area, as in this case, then the Council systematically neglects it, year after year until it becomes too dangerous to use, then they close it. That is absolutely disgraceful.
We are told that to bring Linear Park back into use will cost £30,000 and that the council does not have any funding. Why then is the Council considering spending £28,000 to sponsor the Liverpool stand and send Wirral Council officers to the World Expo in Shanghai next year? I am not buying the rubbish that it’s different funding, or from another budget heading. The simple fact is it is £28,000 of public money, and it should be spent on basics first and foremost in our Borough.
I truly find it exasperating, distressing and downright disgusting that this Council would choose to spend £28,000 on an event over 5,000 miles away, when the infrastructure of the Borough is collapsing around it. Come on Wirral, for once get the basics right, and put the kids first!
3 responses so far ↓
Denise Bell // November 8, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Hear hear – couldn’t agree more.
John // November 9, 2009 at 12:08 am
As well as the problem in Linear Park there are other play areas in the Borough that are kept padlocked at the weekend (and other times people want to use them) to reduce vandalism!
When challenged, an employee then changes this reason to they can’t have play areas open in the rain as Wirral Council may be sued so it has to be “supervised play”, then padlocked back up!
There are other play areas here though kept open the whole time…
At the relevant Cabinet meeting on Nov 5th, Guy Fawkes, sorry Steve Foulkes, the Leader made the argument that the money spent on the Expo in China was to encourage foreign investment to come to Wirral (and generate future jobs).
The Deputy Chief Exec also presented and supported the decision made by the whole (ten-strong) Cabinet.
However from my perspective, the main reason Wirral seems so keen to go is to because Peel asked them (in order to show support for its Wirral Waters project). Quite how many councillors (if any) or officers £10,000 gets you to China and back I don’t know!
However, Liverpool is also going to have a presence there (although their stall is about 50% subsidised by the NWDA).
Certainly the other £18,000; which’ll lead to “seven business to business meetings”; might eventually lead to some investment… possibly.. but it certainly seems the rest (£10,000) like public money being spent to aid a private company.
Then again Wirral Council has already given a six-figure sum to Peel Holdings over the last couple of years for it to do the baseline study/plans for the Wirral Waters project.
It remains to be seen how many jobs it generates though…. I’m still waiting to see some benefits from Wirral Waters after two years of Wirral Council bending over backwards to accomodate Peel’s wishes.
Have you any views on the proposed privatisation of the parks service? I know the unions are pretty against any further privatisation of Wirral Council services…
John // November 9, 2009 at 7:43 am
Whilst a “friends group” obviously has my full support, I can’t help feeling it’s just a fob-off or delaying tactic by the Council.
I don’t know how Sue Charteris’ government department got involved over the libraries fiasco but maybe a similar approach to the department for children, schools and families may be worthwhile especially as they seem to be promoting “Outdoor Play” – http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/campaigns/outdoor_play/
Or perhaps the local healthcare trust considering the NHS’s “Change4Life” initiative encouraging outdoor activities – http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/Default.aspx
I think expecting anything from this Council without them being pushed would be work wasted.