Comment from
Redcastle resident on Facebook re: the state of the St Johns Way play area: "
"Took my
little'un to the park on Redcastle estate today... Disgraceful excuse of a play
area. Instead of spending money on silly statues of tedious TV show characters,
that moolah would be better spend on giving the kids of that estate something
decent to use! Disappointed! That was my old stomping ground as a kid and it
used to be ace!"
Follow-up comments: "They do nothing for the kids and they wonder why !!"
Other
comment: "They could always use the expensive skate park near boots"
and... "We had one
park on Admirals estate at the end of Ramsey Close, which closed years ago and
was supposedly being reinstated, but nothing has happened. Would rather have
had that than the water feature outside Boots!!!!"
and "just be glad
you dont live on the ladies estate which once had 12 parks all dotted around
the estate all but 1 taken were taken away, which is usually littered with
broken bottles or
alcoholics"
and... "The slippery
steps, awful benches and men's urinals that cost £600,000+ that were part of
moving Thetford forward supposedly!!!! And don't forget the clock.
Abbey Farm
estate used to have several parks back in the day, but as always, then as well
as now, an incompetent council that's nowhere near Thetford has always thought
they know what's best for Thetford, rather than the people who live here!"
My response;
Hi
folks, thanks for the tag Gina. I don't disagree with what Paul said in his
original post - the St Johns Way play area is a disgrace, that's why we've been
working to address it. This play area is one of 8 owned by Breckland Council
(the other 7 being Fairfields, Elm Road, Pine Close, Edinburgh Way, Guildford
Way, Bergamont Close & Harriet Martineau). Breckland has long neglected
these play areas and they have all become very run down - in fact, calling them
play areas is a bit much for some of them! Breckland want to transfer these
play areas to Thetford Town Council so that the Town Council can pick up the
cost of improving them and then ongoing running costs. Obviously the Town
Council is very reluctant to do this as it would cost a lot of money - the Town
does not have much money, Breckland is a much bigger authority and in most
areas the District Councils pick up the cost of things such as play areas.
Breckland have already offloaded public toilets to the Town Council and these
cost approx £50,000 a year to run (Breckland's share of the Council Tax didn't
go down when this occur, but the Towns share had to increase) - the same will
happen with play areas. At some point soon, i.e. before the end of this year I
would imagine, the Town Council will have to decide one way or another whether
or not it will take on the 8 play areas. The Town Council has been running a
consultation on play areas - partly online viaThetford Play
Areas but also through meetings and there was an article in the About
Thetford magazine. All of this has been led by the Town Councils Amenities
Committee which is Chaired by the excellent Corinne Fulford.
Running alongside this consultation, many local groups have been campaigning to
improve play areas - the Redcastle
Action Group (RAGs) is probably the best example. They have made
sorting out the St Johns Way play area their top priority and have been raising
funds themselves to contribute to a new play areas - I believe they have over
£1,000 so far! (mainly thanks to Shirley Hurr, Donna Donz
Warnock, Barbara Davies and others) when you apply to the
Lottery for funding etc. it is far more likely that you will be successful if
you can demonstrate that the local community support the project and are
prepared to contribute a bit towards it, even if only 10% of the total cost.
Just to clear a couple of things up - the Captain Mainwaring statue was paid
for by voluntary fundraising, not a penny of 'Council money' - I'm not the
biggest Dad's Army fan but the link with Dad's Army brings in a LOT of money to
Thetford through tourists and the statue helps with that. I'm also not the
biggest fan of the Kings Street Square development (in fact it has been a total
disaster), but, it used money from Moving Thetford Forward that could only be
spent on that sort of thing, so again, it couldn't have been spent on play
areas (although it could have been spent on regeneration of our estates but
that's a whole different argument). Our play areas have suffered because of
Breckland Council choosing not to invest in them and because children and young
people are not a priority for either Brecklnad or the Town Council
historically, so money is not spent on them in any great measure....
So... the state of the play areas is well known, Councillors are aware and
trying to sort it out (albeit slowly as the process is difficult), and there is
an opportunity to make these play areas improve quicker, and make it even
better, if the local community get involved and support RAGs with their
fundraising efforts - so if you can do anything to help, please get in touch
with your local residents group (I can supply contact details if necessary)
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