Parks at risk: ‘If it was not for the volunteers, we would struggle’

Jane Wilcock in Longsight park, Bolton beside one of three walled flower beds paid for by Jane and her husband, David. Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian

Sparse. That’s how Chrisie Byrne describes the playground in Walton Hall park. The outlines of missing equipment scar its black rubber flooring. “It’s a huge footprint, with nothing in it, or at least very little in it,” says Byrne.

There is a set of swings, a low climbing frame with a slide for small children, and a roundabout. A couple of rocking horse-type contraptions date back to the 1990s, well past their usual lifespan, but local people have begged the council not to remove them. Another climbing frame that was burned by vandals was removed and never replaced.