€48,000 fence installed around state-of-the-art playground to curb ongoing anti-social behaviour

MITIGATING measures in the form of a fence are being put in place to curb ongoing issues of anti-social behaviour at the new playground in Le Fanu Park, by Hayden Moore.

The €1.6m skate park and playground opened to the public in June 2020 and to great success, with kids engaging in BMX and skate activities there.

But ever since the launch, anti social activity has grown in its regularity after hours and into the night and especially around the playground.

This week, while acknowledging the need for it, Cllr Vincent Jackson was downbeat with seeing the erection of a new €48k fence around the state of the art playground.

“It kills me that we’re having to put a fence up around it but at this stage, we have to be seen to be taking some sort of action against the levels of anti-social behaviour at this stage,” the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh councillor told The Echo.

“The biggest problem we have is that there is no attraction to sitting around the skatepark, but there is in sitting around on the play equipment in the park.

“There is a lot of anti-social behaviour late into the evening at the park, hanging around throwing stones on the nearby road, abusing people walking past, smashing bottles – local residents are absolutely infuriated with it.

“The thing is though, this might only be 15 to 20 young lads that are doing this into the night whereas we’d have at least a thousand people using the park during the day.

“So you have a small minority of people, a vocal minority that are up to no good and are well aware that they’re up to no good as well and it doesn’t help as well that it’s not kids from the general locality.”

The fence will section off the park overnight and Cllr Jackson was not pleased to see public funds being used like this.

“Look we gave it a go for a year but it’s only persisted,” he said.

“So we’ve had to install the fence.

“It started on Monday and the posts have been set in concrete, so hopefully this will help stop the anti-social behaviour.

“It’s €48,000, I’d much prefer if that sort of money was being used for maybe more play equipment for the park but I guess we have to do what we have to do.”