Removed swings and worn safety matting at Boundary Park due to be replaced

Swings at Boundary Park are due to be replaced

Worn safety matting and swings that have been removed from Boundary Park in Ramsgate will be replaced within the next two months.

The works will be paid for using section 106 money – paid by developers in the surrounding area for improvements as part of planning agreements.

The maintenance was confirmed by Thanet council cabinet member George Kup in response to a question from ward councillor Helen Crittenden at a meeting earlier this week.

Cllr Crittenden said: “The safety matting under the swings in the children’s playground at the popular Boundary Park has become worn to the point of dangerous and the swings have been removed.”

She asked when maintenance would take place in light of the oncoming summer holidays.

Cllr Kup said the matting was “nearing the end of its useful life” but was not dangerous and the park was regularly inspected by council officers and ROSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents).

He said some section 106 funding – understood to be around £12,000- had been received, adding: “The decommissioned swings and matting should be replaced ahead of the summer season and it is therefore planned to carry out this work within the next two months.”

Further developer funding is expected later this year to be used for improvements at the park.

12 Comments

  1. After the ungrateful fuss made over the pirate park in Cliftonville, I think the money would be better spent on more projects for the homeless like Foy House.The equipment will be trashed within days by the local feral kids anyway.

    • I don’t think it’s at all appropriate to use pirates as a theme for a children’s park. Or for a “fun” day at school.

        • Because there is nothing positive about piracy or pirates. They were and are thieves, murderers and rapists. I would be interested to know whether any pirates were or are decent, kind persons with excellent morals and behaviour.

          • Are you referring to the Pirate themed playground, that replaced the Viking themed playground. I am sure the Vikings were such a much nicer bunch of people, when not invading, raping and pillaging.

          • Of all the things in life that pose a possible real world threat to kids today a bit of fantasy role play based on a trivialised representation of outlaws is hardly much to worry about. Plus Game of Thrones was hugely popular, despite it’s depictions of war, incest, rape, torture, gratuitous viiolence, cruelty ( physical and mental), slavery , myhtical beasts etc etc. However incredible as it may seem , people are quite capable of discerning what is fiction. Remember to Err is human , to Aaaarhh is pirate.

    • It probably won’t be, “No Thanks”. This is a popular local park ,overlooked by housing on three sides.

      • i don’t understand why the previous incarnation of the playground was Viking-themed, either.

  2. “…the park was regularly inspected by council officers and ROSPA…”
    What does “regularly” mean?
    Once a month? Year? Decade?
    If the swings had been effectively inspected, then new kit could have been ordered up in time to replace the worn out items.

  3. Why isn’t the park maintained out of the day to day budget, it should be allowed to get in such a state that the park has to be closed until what is essentially “capital budget” is used to repair it. Wake up councillors someone should be checking to see the officers are doing their job. Too much working from home allowed methinks.😀

    • Because the budget for repairs/maintenance to play equipment etc has been reduced to the point of being zero, instead reliant on the developers money that is really intended to provide additional facilities ( for the residents of the properties being built) or grant funding of some sort or other ( the cliftonville refurb for example).
      You’ll probably find that the inspection regime has been contracted to RoSpa , so that all the council has to do is act in accordance with their reports, saves the council taking responsibility (other than compliance with the inspection report, which is easy as it’ll be a case of “ the experts say, so i must”). Nothing gets checked or queried.
      The council has EPCs for some of its properties where its stated there is a pitched roof , the building has a flat roof, the mistake applies to two flats out of 6 in the block, stupid error that makes little difference but shows nothing gets read or corrected. It’s rife across the council and work from home has just made it worse.

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