'What a silly waste of money'
THE extended play area, by the East Beach Café/car park, with a sandpit a few yards from a lovely sandy beach, lots of bits of wood and some new equipment for children of all ages, has intruded into this main seafront open space.
During the day some adults sit smoking and drinking alcohol at the tables provided, while children and young adults mingle together using the "hang and spin" rider for older, taller children, the zipwire (now vandalised) and the swing basket (also vandalised, but repaired and back in place).
From around 6pm each day, groups of youths aged between 16 and 20 muck about, deliberately attempting to break the equipment. This is the sole object of their play.
They smoke and drink alcohol.
Harbour Park has a security guard and high fencing and manages age groups and parents on-site responsibly, ensuring the health and safety of both site and users.
In London, where such items of play equipment have been installed, proper management of the site, with high fences, a man patrolling, careful division of age groups, etc., ensures no one is hurt or intimidated or vandalises the equipment.
At Littlehampton, The Green's extended play area has none of these essential safeguards, not even an old-fashioned park-keeper. It is just a free-for-all, destroying the little children's playground, which needed only minor upgrades.
Young mothers do not want to take their little ones into the area any more, without a man escorting them.
The idea may have appeared pretty on paper, but in reality is an ill-judged, ill-managed, badly designed, failing play area on our seafront's prime open space.
Why do we have to provide all this new equipment, anyway?
What a silly waste of money.
Let the small children have their play area back.
Why can we not enjoy an open greensward, without cars, buildings, unsightly, superfluous signage everywhere, and now this further blight of an over-sized, messy, intrusive playground which has drawn in Littlehampton's louts and vandals, never before interested in the tiny children's playground?
The original covenants from the Duke of Norfolk, who gave The Green to the people of the town, were to prevent it from having anything on it.
It was to remain a simple open space.
How inadequate has been the management of this area for so long, and still it goes on.
Cut the grass, prune the bushes, maintain the flower beds and then "keep off the grass".
Just let the inhabitants and visitors have picnics and play games.
Diane E. Bayley
chairman
Littlehampton Civic Society
Bayford Road
Littlehampton
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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