The head of Calverton's local council says he has thought of employing a security guard at one of the village's parks after it had to be closed due to vandalism. An incident on Monday (May 29) reportedly saw a member of the public jumping from a climbing frame tower onto decking, smashing through it in the process, at the William Lee Park.
Due to health and safety concerns, the closure of the park was confirmed the following day to allow the repair of the decking to take place. Andy Meads, the Chairman of Calverton Parish Council, said: "We should know soon whether we'll be reopening this week or in a few weeks.
"I would hope that we'll be able to fix it ourselves, but we have to make sure the repair work is compliant with health and safety and our insurance. We know who did it now because we have very good CCTV footage, we had cameras put up and a cherry tree was chopped down so that this particular camera looked right onto the playing equipment."
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Councillor Meads said this most recent incident followed several others at the park, with the toilet there also being closed because of vandalism. He said: "There were people going in there breaking the cistern, flooding the toilet out, leaving the taps on and all sorts.
"It was getting to the stage where if you suggested something for the park, people would say 'oh it will just get wrecked.' But I've decided not to think like that anymore, because otherwise everyone misses out."
The park is now gated off, with Calverton Village Hall also being based behind the gates, but some have raised concerns about the closure. Husband and wife Param and Nalini Kan, both 65, run the Calverton Mini Market on Flatts Lane.
Mrs Kan said: "This is a small village and there are no cinemas nearby or anything like that, so there isn't really anywhere for the young people to go. If they keep the park closed, that means there are even less places for them to go and that will cause problems for us also."
But Councillor Meads did point to other facilities for young people in Calverton, including the nearby James Seeley Park where around £156,000 is set to be spent on new equipment. He added: "We've got the three junior schools in Calverton and I did a talk for all of them to see what new equipment they wanted at Seeley Park.
"But what I really wanted to do was give them a talk as well on damage to parks and the effect that it has on everyone, because we do want to stop it... William Lee Park always closes at 6pm now, it didn't used to, but it wasn't fair on our staff.
"We have had the caretakers getting abuse when telling young people that they are locking up the park and that it's time for them to go home. We have actually talked about employing a security guard for the last few hours of the day so that the caretakers don't have to do that, but we'll see."
Neighbourhood policing sergeant for Gedling north Stu Howe, said: "We've been made aware of this incident of vandalism at the park and we’re urging anyone who saw what happened, who may have recorded footage or who has any other information which could help us identify those responsible to please get in touch with us."
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