“On the plus side, it does look like the kind of play park you’d get in Gotham City, which could be useful if they end up doing any more Batman films here.”

Local father-of-two, Sean Kerwin thinks it’s time that Glasgow City Council invested money in improving the play area in Queen’s Park. He is calling on local representatives to make this a priority and ensure allocated money is used. Read on to see what you can do.

Photos and words by Sean Kerwin

When was the last time you were in a playpark? Up until about six years ago, the last time I was in one was probably the mid-90s, and probably involved fortified wine from Devon.

Playparks are not really on your radar until you become a parent, then you’ve got these wee balls of chaos that need to burn off energy, and you’d much rather that energy was not used making your home look like you’ve just been burgled.

Nowadays, six years on and two kids later, I spend a fair bit of time in play parks – and I’m really lucky to live near Queen’s Park.

During lockdown I took the kids there every day for our government-sanctioned exercise regime. I’ve been round every tree and behind every bush – some of them had some nasty surprises in them, which I won’t go into, but on the most part Queen’s Park is brilliant.

Something else that sticks with me from those lockdown days was the play-areas being closed. I remember trying to explain to the kids why the gates were chained up and we weren’t allowed in, and their wee sad faces looking longingly at the swings.

Since it’s been unlocked, we’ve been in there at any opportunity.

Between all the swing pushing, roundabout spinning and spotting your three year old as they traverse the climbing frame with the awareness of a lemming, you do start to notice how dilapidated the place is.

This came to a head mid-March 2022. We popped in for our usual 5 o’clock run-around to find the trampolines with dangerous holes in them and one of the baby swings central belt snapped.

As well as the swing and the trampolines, the other strap on the baby swing is about to go, one of the normal swing seats is damaged, the see-saw is not bolted down properly and two of the climbing frames have metal plates bolted to them. Most of the climbing holds are broken and the surfacing is in a terrible state.

Luckily, the council have since been round to erect some barricades and chain the swings up.

On the plus side, it does look like the kind of play park you’d get in Gotham City, which could be useful if they end up doing any more Batman films here.

More generally, the park has not been upgraded in such a long time that it’s lacking the stuff that modern parks have; safe areas for toddlers, separation of equipment by age group so that nursery age kids are not on the same equipment at teenagers, inclusive play equipment for disabled children.

Take a wee trip up to Rouken Glen or down to Robertson Park in Renfrew to see what a modern play park should look like.

So in light of all this, and with the forthcoming council elections on the 5th of May, I decided to kick up a stooshie. I started this petition, set up a wee website and began emailing councillors.

My first question to GCC via the Southside Central councillors was ‘What has GCC allocated / plan to allocate to improve this popular play area in their Capital Investment programme?

The response from GCC was:

“Langside Area Partnership have recently committed £5,367.85 from their Area Budget for 2021/22 towards the supply and installation of a new Aerowhirl at Queens Park, with this service committing an additional £2694.15 to complete this project budget from our revenue funding for 2022/23.”

An Aerowhirl is one of these, which is incidentally one of the pieces of play equipment that is fully functional and reasonably new. I assume it’s £1313 for the Aerowhirl, £12 for a couple of bags of cement and £6737 for installation and surfacing.

After a bit of probing, I managed to get to talk directly to Seamus Connolly, the group manager of Parks Development & Bereavement Services, Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability. He told me:

“We currently have £14,888 allocated to the repair/refurbishment. We may look to add to this should budget allow. We will carry out a further assessment this week and then review our budget allocation. The tender would include play equipment and carpet repair. We will also engage with the Queens park working group/community councils and elected members regards any proposed works.”

It will be interesting to see what this reassessment brings. If it’s £8k for an Aerowhirl alone, £15k isn’t going to cut it. The play park at Rouken Glen cost £270k!

Now it turns out that the Scottish Government has agreed £5m of funding in 21-22 with local councils for the refurbishment of play parks. Councillor Jon Molyneux (Pollokshields) advised me:

“There is additional £1.5m parks and open spaces funding for the coming financial year…. I think the pro rata allocation for Southside Central will be similar amount [as last year] (c£70k).”

The money has been allocated and ring-fenced for play parks – we just need to make sure it is spent on improving OUR play park. As Queen’s park borders on Govanhill, Langside, Shawlands and Strathbungo, if we can combine multiple area partnership funds, we could get the park we need.

This park is a lifeline to families living in and around Govanhill, especially if you live in a flat and don’t have a garden. Children have suffered enough during the pandemic and deserve a safe space to play in. It’s key for their physical and mental wellbeing.

There’s been enough patch-up repairs. What we need is a complete reworking of the space, new equipment and new surfacing.

Speaking to the Glasgow Times on this, a Glasgow City Council spokesman said:

“We have an on-going programme of repair and renovation for the city’s play areas and we always look to target our resources as effectively as possible. Our play areas are checked on a routine basis and if any issues are identified we will always take steps to ensure safety is protected.
“The Parks and Open Space Fund is allocated to the twenty-three Area Partnerships across the city and each individual partnership will ultimately decide how their allocation from the fund is spent.
“We anticipate initial proposals will go before the partnerships this summer and we expect community councils, Friends Of groups and others to be consulted on what projects should receive investment in each area.”

What can you do now?

Throughout this campaign – which has been ongoing for about a month – we’ve nearly got 1000 signatures on the petition, got support from one Community Council and had a bit of press - I’m now known locally as the ‘Saddened Dad’, thanks Glasgow Times.

If you think Queen’s Park play area is a disgrace and we deserve better, please sign my petition and most importantly, let your councillors know.

If they come to your door between now and the election on the 5th of May, tell them you want the play park improved.

Writetothem.com makes it really easy to send them an email – just stick your postcode it and it will find your councillors for you. You can send your email via the site to all your councillors at once.

Hope to see you in a new Queen’s Park play area soon.