Mayo playground refurbishment funding gone on ‘big ugly fence’

Forty-thousand euro in funding for Westport Leisure Park Playground has been spent on a fence to hinder anti-social behaviour.

The funding was allocated to the facility in May 2023 after major complaints about the health and safety standard of the playground. 

Concerns were raised due to graffiti and broken equipment, which has reportedly injured two young children.

The facility off James Street was closed this past August, 16 months after the funding was allocated, to refurbish the playground as part of the Community Recognition Fund.

T_{he swings at Westport Leisure Park Playground} 

The playground re-opened in the first week of September, however, the broken equipment has not been repaired, and a fence has been erected around it.

Speaking on Midwest Radio yesterday, a member of Westport Parent and Toddler group, Stephanie Fitzgerald, described the fence as ‘something that you’d see in Mountjoy, but the colour green’.

“[The playground] has been like that for the last ten or 12 years, which is a state that is essentially unfit for purpose, I would say,” explained Ms Fitzgerald.

Radio host Tommy Marren stated that there isn't much ‘not fit for purpose around Westport’, to which Ms Fitzgerald responded: “It really gives the impression that this is a town that looks after itself and wants to welcome visitors, and it’s really a town that wants to include everybody… you have to scratch around the centre of the town for any facility for young people and adolescents, and you would be looking for a very long time.”

Ms Fitzgerald accused the council of ‘putting a big green metal fence to camouflage’ and ‘to cover over the playground facility’. 

“They reopened the playground with the big ugly fence and didn’t do one single thing inside to ensure the safety of the children or guardians.”

Councillor Peter Flynn, who originally announced the €40,000 refurbishment funding on Midwest radio in 2023, commented: “The €40,000 came through a Community Recognition Fund, it was ear-marked largely to put a security fence around the playground because of all these anti-social behaviours that has happened in this particular area over the last number of years.”

When asked if the erection of the fence cost €40,000, Cllr Flynn answered ‘yeah it did, it’s palisade fencing’.

"That's like putting a sticky plaster on an arm that's falling off. We're not talking about or dealing with the root issues,” countered Ms Fitzgerald.

_{Graffitied equipment at Westport Leisure Park Playground} 

“We have got a commitment from the local municipal district that they are going to apply pressure on the section in Mayo County Council that are in charge of the budget for playgrounds,” told Cllr Flynn.

Following this response, Ms Fitzgerald asked: “Why do we need Mountjoy standard fencing? Why do we need to spend €40,000 on this? This is nonsense.”

The Fine Gael councillor showcased Westport’s ‘finest’ facilities, such as United Park, and said the fencing, which was agreed and signed off on by local councillors, came after ‘young people were congregating down [around the playground], drugs were being sold, equipment was being vandalised, the council was fixing it, and it was continued to be vandalised’.

The Westport Parent and Toddler group member stated: “The young people are hanging out there because there's nowhere [else]. There was a café put up, run by the youth, and the council pulled the funding on that.

“We need visionary thinking and strategic planning for the young people, the children, the carers and parents and young families in this town, it has been lacking and needs to start being attended to,” she concluded.

Finally, when asked if he believed the playground is a functioning one, Cllr Flynn called it a ‘disgrace’.

“I’m not defending the indefensible. It's very easy to come in here giving out about councillors saying we're all doing nothing… We are trying our best.”