Vandals wreck Headington play area - hours after grand opening (From Oxford Mail)

Vandals wreck Headington play area - hours after grand opening

8:00am Thursday 9th July 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(10)

CHILDREN have been left fenced out of a new play area after vandals broke in and defaced it, hours after its grand opening.

It is not known when the specially carved climbing rock and sandpit, which has been two years in the planning, will reopen.

Friends of Quarry Hollow Park was set up in 2007 after rumours Oxford City Council was set to close the park because of the costs involved in upgrading it.

The threat stirred residents into action to save their beloved play area.

For the past two years the group has been tirelessly campaigning to secure the future of the park, just off Quarry Road, in Headington.

When plans to demolish the park were thrown out earlier this year, it seemed the group’s fortunes had turned round — especially as the city council agreed to spend £45,000 upgrading the area starting with a new £10,000 climbing rock and sandpit.

But just hours after the opening ceremony on Saturday, where hundreds of children and parents had watched as expert carver Alec Peever put the finishing touches to the rock, the play area had already been defaced, despite protective fences still being up around it.

Vandals broke through 8ft high fences and daubed the rock, which was specially commissioned out of Portland Stone, and a nearby slide with black paint.

Police are investigating the vandalism.

Sue Webb, 42, of Margaret Road, said she noticed the damage when she was walking her dog in the park the following morning.

She added: “It’s just so sad. It is such a shame people have to do things like this.”

Her son Max, six, helped chose some of the motifs carved on the rock during the special ceremony.

He said: “I really like climbing and I chose the butterfly which is on the stone.

“I was really looking forward to playing on it.

“It makes me very sad that I won’t be able to.”

Lynn Knapp, the headteacher of nearby Windmill Primary School, in Margaret Road, said: “The children don’t understand why someone would destroy something which they care about and which is there for everybody to enjoy.”

Jamie Murray, project manager for the park contractor Groundwork Thames Valley, said: “We are not sure how much it will cost to get the paint off the rock or if we even will be able to remove it.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk