€4,500 spent so far repairing playground in Corkagh Park
€4,500 has been spent to date on repairing the slide in Corkagh Park playground, which was damaged when it was set on fire last month, reports Aimee Walsh.
The slide suffered extensive damage when a bin liner was set alight at the base of the slide which then raged through it, damaging the slide and the tower it is attached to on the night of September 29.
Speaking to The Echo at the beginning of this month, a spokesperson for South Dublin County Council said that it was estimated it would cost €3,300 to fix the slide, but a recent report at an Area Committee Meeting for Clondalkin revealed that approximately €4,500 has been spent on works to date with further repairs still required.
In their report, the council stated: “The slide required a full internal and external clean from the starting point to the run-out area at the base of the slide. The clean-up also included the top of the tower which had suffered smoke damage.”
Following the act of vandalism there have been calls from local councillors on the council to take action to secure the playground after closing times to deter people from congregating and potentially starting fires.
The council said that it cannot be argued that there is a major incidence rate of fires given that there are close to 50 playgrounds and exercise areas across the county.
In their response they said: “We believe the solution involves improving the fire resistance of our playgrounds.
“We have continued to make the playgrounds more robust and vandal proof in recent years mainly by making them less conducive to groups hanging around there in the first place- removing areas of tarmac and clean areas like wet pour surfacing.”
The council also added that as the Teenspace Programme is rolled out, it is expected that the congregation of teenagers in playgrounds is likely to reduce.
In their response to the calls to secure the area to make it less accessible after closing time, the council said that the “current position will be examined to see if any security improvements can be made.”
They said: “The original playground which was first constructed on this site was secured with a boundary post and wire fence when it was initially installed.
“It quickly became apparent that due to the isolated nature of the location within the park and the many access points that were used to gain entry to the facility, that it was not possible to retain an intact boundary fence. For this reason, the fence was removed and subsequently a fence was not provided when the playground was recently upgraded.”
