A Glasgow dad has launched a campaign to fix up a play park popular with local kids, including his own.
Sean Kerwin is determined to highlight the condition of the Queen's Park Playground North in a bid to get the council to upgrade it.
The dad takes his three and five-year-old to the playground almost every day which he says is in 'terrible condition'.
He's described the play equipment as 'unsafe' with various pieces 'patched up or removed when beyond repair'
The 38-year-old explained: "I started the petition because the play park is in a state of disrepair. The trampolines are fenced off, the swings are chained up, the climbing walls are broken and the seesaw is coming loose from its fixing. The surfacing is also in poor condition. Children living in the Southside deserve better.
"It’s been like this for ages, the council will come every now and again and do some small repairs or just remove the equipment if it’s beyond repair.
"I take my kids here pretty much every day and it’s a well-used play park, especially for parents who live in flats who don’t have gardens. It serves some of the most deprived communities in Glasgow (bottom 10% on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation).
"The Scottish Government has committed £1.5m this year to improving play parks, this works out around £70k pro-rata for South Central area. I’d like to see this plus any other available funding allocated to improving the play area as part of the council's capital investment programme 22-23."
As well as upgrading the current setup, Sean is also urging Glasgow City Council to install inclusive play equipment in the park so it can be enjoyed by children of all ages.
Hundreds of people have already signed a petition calling for money allocated through the Parks and Open Spaces Fund to be spent on resurfacing and new buying new play equipment for the park.
A £1.5 million Parks and Open Space Improvement Fund was allocated across the city's 23 Area Partnerships with funding ranging between £89k and £42k to wards across the city.
Holly Ritchie said: "This playground supports hundreds of children who don’t have their own gardens. Take one look at our park compared to Roukenglen and THAT sums up GCC. Glasshouse play provision is gone and the play park is a disgrace."
Kirsty Ross added: "Queens Park is our local playground and is in desperate need of improvement. The playground is very popular but very tired! Several bits of equipment are broken and very worn. Queens Park has such great potential it is a shame it isn't being allowed to shine as it should for the community. The equipment itself is not inclusive for children with disabilities."
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “We have an ongoing programme of repair and renovation for the city’s play areas and we always look to target our resources as effectively as possible.
“Our play areas are checked on a routine basis and if any issues are identified we will always take steps to ensure safety is protected.
“The Parks and Open Space Fund is allocated to the 23 Area Partnerships across the city and each individual partnership will ultimately decide how their allocation from the fund is spent.
“We anticipate initial proposals will go before the partnerships this summer and we expect community councils, Friends Of groups and others to be consulted on what projects should receive investment in each area.”
