Youth workers have said that recent antisocial behaviour in the Colin area of West Belfast is a result of cuts to funding for youth providers.
The PSNI was called to Páirc Nua Chollann on the Stewartstown Road on Monday night after reports of youths throwing stones at cars. Equipment within the park was later set alight.
Colm Fanning from the Lagmore Youth Project told Belfast Live that when he arrived on the scene, many young people were enjoying the facilities and not participating in the disorder.
Read more: Belfast young people on youth sector's role in their lives
"What we saw yesterday was a couple of kids who were bored," he said.
"Their behaviour is completely unjustified and the police need to be more proactive. As youth providers, we attended the park when we heard what was happening and when we got there, there was about 30 young people enjoying the equipment.
"They were having fun, they weren't consuming alcohol and they weren't throwing stones.
"If we want to tackle incidents like this then we need to have a strategy in place. We are being faced with funding cuts and have no detached youth workers in the voluntary sector within the Colin area because we don't have the funding.
"If there is no youth provision available during midterm, over and above what we normally provide then we are going to see issues."
To combat antisocial behaviour, the Lagmore Youth Project is working with Colin Neighbourhood Partnership and Belfast City Council to animate the park over the St Patrick's Day celebrations and youth workers will be in the park each weekend during March.
Local MLA Danny Baker described the incident as "thoughtless and dangerous".
"Voluntary youth providers have had their funding cut and while I am not making excuses for such behaviour, cutting services as vital as this does have an impact," he said.
"I will do all I can to get additional resources into this particular area and try to bring this to a stop."
A Belfast City Council spokesperson said: "We’re aware of damage to the play park at Pairc Nua Chollann . We are assessing the impact of the damage caused and will progress repairs and clean up.
"We continue to work in partnership with the local community and statutory agencies, including the PSNI, to address issues of anti-social behaviour and vandalism. We would encourage the public to report any further instances of anti-social behaviour and vandalism to the PSNI.”
PSNI Inspector Lowry said: “We received a report from the driver of a vehicle, a white coloured Peugeot Access, that had been damaged by a group of up to five youths who were throwing stones at passing cars, as they drove along the Stewartstown Road.
“Our enquiries are continuing and we are appealing to anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have dash-cam footage which can assist our investigation to contact 101 quoting reference number 1572 13/02/23.
"You can also submit a report online using our non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport."
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