to expect the local playground not to be covered in broken bottles and fag butts?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

I am fed up with the state of the parks in my small town. They become teen hangouts after dark and are littered with broken bottles, fag butts and fast food waste particularly just after the weekend.

I have to scan the ground constantly for dangerous litter as my 18mo dd is in the 'put everything in my mouth' phase of development. While my son throws himself around as 3yo boys do - i fear he will fall on broken glass.

The whole situation is making me all misty eyed about the lovely park near my old house in London. It was beautifully looked after and landscaped, had a duck lake, play ground, cafe and toilets and was looked after my a team of keepers. This wasn't in Kew or sommat btw - it was scummy old Lewisham....

Am I expecting too much of my local council to keep the park safe? We have contacted the Chief Exec about this before btw - and they have done jack all!

Anyone else have to put up with this?

Not sure if the volume of adults puts them off... really, the park is packed with children and teenagers during the summer holidays.

Actually I have find it interesting that they won't stop themselves from fondling each other even when they have plenty of small children and their mums a few feet away.

I really don't know what is going on, I don't live in a bad area either, and the guy who pointed the airgun to DS was not dressed as if he came from a disadvantaged background, quite the oposite. I supose his parents have not a clue about how he plays with his Chrsitmas toys.

The area in Lewisham I lived was on the boundary of Blackheath (not that that will mean much to those outside London) - but there were enough yooung families to populate the parks and keep the cafe going through a good portion of winter. There is a school next door so we had teens hanging out at lunch time - but they were very visible in their schol uniforms so could not get up to anything too awful.

The key I think is that London parks are a far greater valued resource, peopple in an urban environment have to make the most of the green spaces they have - far fewer people have their own garden etc.

It is a cruel irony that I moved to 'the country' to enjoy more open space - I get here and it is covered with the detritus of bored teens

bigmouth, sadly it's the same situation in London now. Parks and recreational services are way down on the list of priorities; in fact the new way of thinking is to create 'Friends of X Park' groups and get them to take some of the responsibility for maintaining green spaces - this includes fundraising for new equipment etc while the council follows the minimum requirements in terms of health and safety (supposedly). It's all lip service in the name of community involvement but it looks like it's here to stay.

Complain to your local councillor rather than the council itself. Get your Neighbourhood Watch/Residents Association involved too - and your local community police officer re any vandalism.

Sorry, have only read the OP - my mini rant is over for now!

Mercy - I think on reflection that we had a 'friends of' group for this park - but had not realised that the park was so reliant on their funding as opposed to the council...

Isabel - and those of you voting AGAINST a special area for teenagers to go, you do realise that if the teenagers have nowhere to go they will carry on vandalising kids playgrounds, and congregate in carparks/busshelters etc?

Near us the council have just created a number of special teenage hangouts - outdoor enclosed basketball courts which can also be used for other things. They have called thes MUGAS (multi use something areas) Yes these are near to residential areas (otherwhise the teenagers could not get to them), and it is LOVELY to walk past them in the afternoon / early evening and see groups of teenagers / youths hanging out together, playing ball, listening to music etc. Much better than them hanging around in the toddlers playarea! The MUGA near us has been up for around 6 months, and it is still pristine - the youths don't want to damage their own place. And the toddlers playarea is looking a lot cleaner as a result, and I can take the dc there without feeling intimidated by teenagers. It works, it really does, you just have to give bored teens a chance!!
Our

Not sure what that stray 'our' is doing at the end there...

Yes, I do realise but I have also seen how they turn into problematic areas if they are not staffed. I have no problems with the council providing a staffed apropiate facility, but a shed to hang out... no, thank you. If they behaved better they would have my vote!

So sorry you are having the same issues we are. We have a residents only park opposite our house - the fence was burned down last year and the coded security gate is broken. I wouldn't even mind allowing non-residents in to be honest, but it is the local teens that are the problem. We have lived in this house for just over 2 months and I have honestly lost count of the number of times I have called the police. If it is not a Tues-thurs when you call though they are too busy to come out . We have pleaded with the management company to fix the fence, told them the 5hr a week security guard is a joke, and have been mostly ignored when we do make contact. DH went over there this morning and removed several used nappies that had been left behind yesterday which is as bad as the horrible teens who then smeared the contents all over one of the slides.....
I have truely had enough of this at my place and I have every sympathy for your situation too.

Its very depressing when parks are dirty/
vandalised/littered.
Contact your local councillor and ask him/her to take it up, this is the best way forward.
Also if people do complain, it makes them realise that these play areas ARE important and need to be maintained.

I live in London and we don't go to the local park. I take the tube for half an hour to a large park that is actually clean and well look after (for the tourists).
It seems like local councils don't care much in London. We stopped going after we saw a dodgy looking hooded creature walking a very dangerous looking dog and letting him run around free. He didn't seem like a subscriber to "Dog Owners Monthly". And the park is meant to be patrolled.
??!!

Isabel, ours are not staffed, but they are not sheds, they are smallish, outdoor floodlit sports areas with a hard surface, basketball hoops, and some smart solid 'fencing' type structure round the edge, they are designed for basketball, netball, and five-a-side football.
Shame the teens in your area need something to be staffed to stop them from destroying it

I guess I am very very lucky. In our village a group of unemployed actors (or aspiring actors) aged between 16 - 30ish have set up a youth drama group, working on the kind of edgy productions a group of teens would actually enjoy. In addition a new residents action group has just been formed which is looking at a youth club, and they are starting to set up concerts in local places, thus encouraging youths to form bands etc.
I realise this will not solve all the problems, but there does appear to be more coming up for youngsters and hopefully they can channel their creative talents into this instead of grafitti and vandalism!

This sounds just the same as my local park which is over the road from us. We have had to leave on numerous occasions because kids from the high school next door walk in and smash bottles over the roundabout - right in front of us!!

Last time we left (because of foul language - some of it aimed at me) I rang the headmaster of the school and gave a description of them. Apparently they all had a talking to in the assembly the next day but it still puts me off going there.

our problem park is bringing in park rangers soon so it seems as though ours at least are doing something, think it's a national thing too

Mercy, that policy is what we have locally now too and it is pernicious in its ineffectiveness. If our scruffy little park is vandalised it's our own fault for not looking after it better ourselves now.
All over my part of SE London there are small parks with play areas, and all of them have the forlorn razed outlines of where there were once cafes, toilet blocks, maybe a bowling or tennis pavilion and the lock-up for the ranger. Visiting any of them is a depressing and occasionally scary experience nowadays - you never know who or what to expect.
I am quite supportive of our council as a rule but their parks and open spaces policy is a disgrace . They and the police recently did nothing about an escalating campaign of violence and antisocial behaviour against an old-fashioned and rather atmospheric cafe and...it was burnt down. We now have a visiting trailer selling burgers and dayglo lollies
Bigmouth, I know the park you mean believe me people travel on buses and trains to get there in the school hols, so much better is it than most others in the area.

This is so sad.

hippipotami (love your name!) I think from this thread we can say that unfortunately respectful teens in public areas are quite a minority

It is a shame , and I really don't remember being so disrespectful when I was a teen. So where did it go so wrong all of a sudden?

I have no idea, I really don't. I remember to be very careful in giving priority to the young children, even when I was just 12 yrs old!.

i get really upset about broken glass in the playground too. my baby has just started walking but can't walk in shoes, so has to either crawl or go barefoot...no good with glass about.
however, i do remember as a disgruntled teenager with nowhere to go,we would get drunk on the swings and then smash the bottle of cinzano we were drinking as a kind of pissed bonding ritual. horrible though i now know that is, at the time i just didn't even THINK about the kids using the playground afterwards. in the evening, it felt like "our" space. there was nowhere else we could go, the cops wouldn't let us hang out in the bus shelters and moved us on! there is no way we would have gone to youth clubs cos we wanted to get wasted and get off with biker boys.
i think what would have helped is if someone had come and talked, not as a telling off, but as another park user, and said how bad it was for little kids and why. of course there are antisocial little gits out there who don't care, but most, im sure, are more like i was,plain thoughtless.
not that im brave enough to volunteer at my local school!

sorry to reopen this thread but i was looking for advice on how to re-juvinate our local park.
The council say they are trying and have invested in playpods but again they are not aimed at the drunken teens.
There is a local bobbie working with shops and off licences to prevent teens buying alcohol,but that doesn't stop their iresponsible parents providing it.
The community hall was painted last year to cover up the minimal graffiti,now this year its horrendous, Ive never seen it so bad.

Has anyone got any idea on how to set up a community association and how to get the funding for it.

Write to the local MP and the local papers, see if you can get some other mothers on side and make as much fuss as you can to the local council.

well the local councilor has been talking to the mp as she was unable to take her dgc there due to glass.
The papers got involved when the playgroup moved out of the hall because of the glass,break ins and graffitii.
The only ones who use the hall now are the elderly for their one afternoon dance and the youth club 3 evenings a week.
There was talk of a hall revamp but nothing has happened 1yr on.
There was talk of funding for a basketball court, they have put an ariel slide and a tyre swing which is are both used regularly.
But for the toddlers there is not alot because as the teens vandalise then the council remove.
We had 3 slides we are now down to one, we had two little huts where the kids sold ice cream now left with 1 incorporated in the slide.we had a nice set of swings and a climbing frame all completely removed.

Now all we have is a tiny roundabout 2 spring things a seesaw and a wooden bridge/slide/shop thing.

I do ring the council when there is glass in the playground and they come out within the hour but im getting fed up of phoning and im sure they must be fed up of me too.

I also understand teenagers need something to do and they don't want adult supervision.
we were all once teens and if they had a place of their own to do what they like then they might also behave better, and treat it better.
A positive attitude from the neighbours is better than a negative one and they have more respect for some one that will help and listen.
Not for the old moaner who they will try to annoy even more (my own experience).
what do you think?