Thursday, May 11th, 2006
vertiser an imes No. 6,250 news and views from the Centre of the Kingdom - r ' - m'.
www.clitheroetoday.co.uk Price 60p
Parents’ fury over play area closure
by Faiza Afzaal
THE group of skaters pictured at the Lancashire Young Citizens’ Award presentation earlier this year (s)
Award for skaters
FIVE Clitheroe young people are in London today to receive a nation al award for their cam paigning activities. Clitheroe Skate Park
members Will, Oliver, Jack, Alan and Laura from Clitheroe and their campaign for a new skate park are runners-up in the Deutsche Bank Spotlight Awards 2006, an innova tive initiative to recognise young people who have spoken up and taken con structive action ab o u t something they thought should be improved, changed or created in their community. The Clitheroe Skate
Park Group members are avid skateboarders and when the town’s sk a te park was closed, they were determined to get a new one opened. The youngsters attend
ed meetings with Kibble Valley Borough Council to express their views and ensure their campaign was taken seriously. Will was invited to
speak at a council meeting to present the campaign ideas. They were able to raise
the necessary funds to build the skate park, through the Lancaster Foundation - a charitable trust. The new skate park was officially opened at the end of April. At today’s awards cere
mony in London, Julia Middleton, chief executive of Common Purpose, and Lucy Poloniecka, manag ing director in Human Resources a t Deutsche Bank, awarded prizes of up to £1,000 to each of the 12 finalists of the awards.
DISGRUNTLED parents in Clitheroe have slammed the council’s decision to close a popular children’s playground
without warning. Earlier this month. Kibble Val
ley Borough Council decided to close the play area in the Castle Grounds while major refurbish ment is carried out. The £25,000 revamp, which
includes the introduction of a new climbing frame, a rubberised safe ty smface, a pendulum swing and a dish roundabout for disabled children, replaces play equipment previously destroyed by vandals. Although council bosses claim
that the park should re-open by the end of May, the decision to close the community amenity at the beginning of the summer sea son has prompted outrage from local parents. Mrs Julie Hitchen (33), of
Shirebum Avenue, Clitheroe, reg ularly takes her three-year-old son, Lloyd, to the park. She has spoken of her “utter disbelief” at the clo sure., “After months of inclement ’
weather, when the park was virtu-' ally unusable, just as the weather.
THE sign that says it all. . . but contractors are working hard to restore the playground quickly (CR090506/1)
takes a turn for the better, inexpli cably the coimcU decides to close the facility for a month. “A bit of notice would have been
nice. I took my son to the park during the May Bank Holiday weekend and i t was absolutely packed. Where will we take him during the Spring Bank Holiday weekend if i t is not up-and-run- ning? “The other day I took Lloyd to the park, only to find it was cor-
, doned off. “Lloyd became very upset and to appease him I took him to Hen-
thom Park, where I found the area to be littered with broken bottles! “The Castle park is popular
with lots of local children and is perfect for children under the age of three. “Why couldn’t the council carry
out the refurbishment during the winter months when hardly any one visits the facility?” Mrs Hitchen added: “I t just
seems senseless with the opening of the nearby skate park. If par ents want to leave their older chil dren at the skate park, where do they take their younger children?
Similar views have been
expressed by a mother-of-two, who wishes to remain anonymous. She has branded the council’s
decision to close the play area dur ing the month of May as “ridicu lously bad-timing”. She said:“It’s sad really especial
ly when they are always trying to promote Clitheroe Castle as a pre mier tourist attraction. Young sters always complain about the lack of play facilities in the town dming the nice weather - the clo sure just doesn’t'help.” In response to the concerns
raised, Mr Phil Dodd, engineering assistant for Kibble Valley Bor ough Council, said: “The park should hopefully be re-opened by the end of May. “It will be fully refurbished with
new equipment complying with the Disability Discrimination Act and will result in better play facili ties for children. “The council has had to shut the
playground at this time of the year because it is better for the contrac tors to work in dry weather - this way they are not delayed by the bad winter weather.” Meanwhile, Mr Dodd is appeal
ing to everyone to be vigilant and to report incidents of vandalism to the police on 01200 443344 once the new equipment is installed.
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