With real reason to be concerned over the health of our children and talk of the breakdown in community life, how sad and frustrated I was to read about the neglect of another of Hampden Park's playgrounds.
How I admire the work of The Friends of Tugwell Park who recognise the true value and potential for good that their playground represents. It is the energy, the commitment and vision of such people that
compensates for the limited response of the decision-makers in our town. At a time when others are developing and enhancing opportunities for children and young people, the facilities we do have are falling into disrepair and dereliction. Strange priorities.
Over the weekend I visited each of Hampden Park's
playgrounds and found the same story. At Tugwell, the empty spaces and the grassed over stone foundation looked to me like the unmarked graves of apparatus long gone but still remembered by the children I met. In another playground a deep and wide hole in the
safety surface is serving as an ashtray and the language of the graffiti covering the bench makes for adult reading.
Whilst there is cold comfort and little reason for hope and renewal in the response of the council spokesperson's, 'subject to funding', people who care will yet win the day and I will be supporting the Friends of Tugwell in this very worthy cause.
Caroline Ansell, Hampden Park Campaigner, Baldwin Avenue, Eastbourne