Griffeen Playground

Lyn256

Not sure where I should go about this one.

Hubbie had a day off yesterday and headed out with the kids to the playground (Griffeen -beside the sports and leisure centre in Lucan)

He arrived at 10.30 to find it still locked up. Met another parent who'd been there since 10am waiting for it to open.

She said that she eventually found a park ranger who said that he might open it at lunchtime, she asked why it wasn't open now and he didn't give her an answer

Whats the point in having these facilities if we can;t use them?? Am I over-reacting?

So where do I go to find out why this happened and complain?? SDCC?? TD's/councillors??

Thanks

average_runner

Lyn256 wrote: »

Not sure where I should go about this one.

Hubbie had a day off yesterday and headed out with the kids to the playground (Griffeen -beside the sports and leisure centre in Lucan)

He arrived at 10.30 to find it still locked up. Met another parent who'd been there since 10am waiting for it to open.

She said that she eventually found a park ranger who said that he might open it at lunchtime, she asked why it wasn't open now and he didn't give her an answer

Whats the point in having these facilities if we can;t use them?? Am I over-reacting?

So where do I go to find out why this happened and complain?? SDCC?? TD's/councillors??

Thanks

Email the SDCC straight away about this as they will do something. Usually the park ranger is late on a Sunday morning but its open by 10.15.

Ensure to include the data and time of the event.

unkel

Email all the councillors. At least a few of them will get on the case. I find in that playground that the rangers are often very keen to get it closed. Most of the time well ahead of the official closing time.

dubaicentral

unkel wrote: »

I find in that playground that the rangers are often very keen to get it closed. Most of the time well ahead of the official closing time.

Not sure if the advertised playground closing time is 20;30 like the car park but I can remember the park ranger telling me that they have to lock up all the car parks and other park gates in lucan and palmerstown from the one 2 man crew, something like 20 or 30 gates to be closed in the last hour of business.

So I wouldn't be too harsh on the parkies but maybe a bit of persuasion and pressure might get them to open the playground first and have it as one of the last closed gates of the day.

Also can't figure out why it wouldn't be open until one. Maybe somebody called in sick.

Lyn256

Thanks for the replies-I've started with an email to SDCC and will see what their response it before I go further with it.
There may be a plausible reason so I don't want to go jumping the gun just yet

I'll let you know what the response it!

Thanks again

unkel

Fair point, dubaicentral. Thinking about it a bit more, maybe they should just leave all carparks and playground open all the time. What really is the point of closing them? If someone would want to be anti-social in any of the carparks / playgrounds it would be really easy to climb in and do so

The county council staff could then be either reduced or used in other areas like cleaning up. When bin collection was opened up to free market forces, it became a lot cheaper (I pay about €100 per year now, used to be about €250) and the county council staff are now sometimes seen to clean up rubbish from the roads

tomred1

unkel wrote: »

Fair point, dubaicentral. Thinking about it a bit more, maybe they should just leave all carparks and playground open all the time. What really is the point of closing them? If someone would want to be anti-social in any of the carparks / playgrounds it would be really easy to climb in and do so

The county council staff could then be either reduced or used in other areas like cleaning up. When bin collection was opened up to free market forces, it became a lot cheaper (I pay about €100 per year now, used to be about €250) and the county council staff are now sometimes seen to clean up rubbish from the roads

I presume the gates are there to prevent Travellers moving into the car parks and taking them over also.

Lyn256

tomred1 wrote: »

I presume the gates are there to prevent Travellers moving into the car parks and taking them over also.

That's a good point and would be relevant to the parks but not to the playgrounds within them.

In this case the park was open but the playground was not.

Not a peep back from SDCC yet!

average_runner

tomred1 wrote: »

I presume the gates are there to prevent Travellers moving into the car parks and taking them over also.

The reason why the play ground is locked up is because a few years ago the Park Ranger found glass stuck on the slides to cut the children go down them in the morning.

You wouldn't be able to climb the fence around the play ground.

There is plenty of places to park outside the park too.

CJ1

I used to go Griffeen playground very regularly but have been very disappointed lately at how rundown and neglected it looks,lots of fences have been removed or burnt and they have been very shoddily replaced and the tyre swing and the little bridge have been removed. I assume it is due to anti-social behaviour. With a population of so many children Lucan is not particularly well-served with no swimming pool and to let the playground become so shoddy it is really not good enough. I know a state of the art playground has been granted up at St. Catherines but work has not even started on this yet so surely they should try upkeep the only existing facility for the 1000s of Lucan children.

Miss Lockhart

average_runner wrote: »

The reason why the play ground is locked up is because a few years ago the Park Ranger found glass stuck on the slides to cut the children go down them in the morning.

You wouldn't be able to climb the fence around the play ground.

There is plenty of places to park outside the park too.

And yet there are teens in there every single night after closing. The playground has always been locked in the evening.

dubaicentral

I would imagine the reasons for the playground being closed has something to do with insurance purposes. At a guess i would say to stop kids using when it is dark or maybe it isn't insured once council staff go home. I am aware it is not supervised but there is staff and rangers on duty in the general are during the day.

Miss lockhart you are correct I cannot remember the last time I went through the park after closing and it not been full of teenagers up to God knows what especially in the summer months.

As for the car parks closing i'd come back to insurance probably being a motive there and travellers as mentioned. Also the fact that it closes discourages people from parking cars there for days at a time.

emo72

average_runner wrote: »

The reason why the play ground is locked up is because a few years ago the Park Ranger found glass stuck on the slides to cut the children go down them in the morning.

jesus effin christ:( really? **** me, we have hit a new low

Lyn256

average_runner wrote: »

The reason why the play ground is locked up is because a few years ago the Park Ranger found glass stuck on the slides to cut the children go down them in the morning.

Sorry I didn't make it clear-I'm aware that the playground is locked, however, its supposed to be opened by 10am and on the day that my hubbie and kids were there, it was 10.30 and it hadn't been opened and seemingly, wasn't tobe opened until lunchtime!

Still no response from SDCC . . . .

JustAThought

Lyn256 wrote: »

Sorry I didn't make it clear-I'm aware that the playground is locked, however, its supposed to be opened by 10am and on the day that my hubbie and kids were there, it was 10.30 and it hadn't been opened and seemingly, wasn't tobe opened until lunchtime!

Still no response from SDCC . . . .

Send a registered letter to the county manager & ask for a response.

average_runner

CJ1 wrote: »

I used to go Griffeen playground very regularly but have been very disappointed lately at how rundown and neglected it looks,lots of fences have been removed or burnt and they have been very shoddily replaced and the tyre swing and the little bridge have been removed. I assume it is due to anti-social behaviour. With a population of so many children Lucan is not particularly well-served with no swimming pool and to let the playground become so shoddy it is really not good enough. I know a state of the art playground has been granted up at St. Catherines but work has not even started on this yet so surely they should try upkeep the only existing facility for the 1000s of Lucan children.

Thats a bit over the top now in fairness. The play ground is in good condition, was down there on Sunday and it was grand.

Lucan is well served with activities for kids, just alone in Griffeen park there is 12 pitches for sport, 4 tennis courts, skating park, running track, an organised running event for everyone every sat morning. Loads of soccer and GAA coaching going on also. Coaching session for kids in Athletics on a Tuesday and Thursday evening. Hall in the sports centre also. You could bring kids on nature walks in park, see the ducks, the foxes, rabbits etc.

Only thing we don't have is a swimming pool and there is plenty of them in available in the gyms close by. Liffey Valley gym is very reasonable on membership.


People just make excuses as they don't want to look too hard is usually the answer.

average_runner

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

And yet there are teens in there every single night after closing. The playground has always been locked in the evening.

I have trained in the park up to 10 at night some nights, and never saw teenagers in the playground after its closed

average_runner

Lyn256 wrote: »

That's a good point and would be relevant to the parks but not to the playgrounds within them.

In this case the park was open but the playground was not.

Not a peep back from SDCC yet!

Can take a week or so to get a reply and it be a phone call also.

average_runner

dubaicentral wrote: »

I would imagine the reasons for the playground being closed has something to do with insurance purposes. At a guess i would say to stop kids using when it is dark or maybe it isn't insured once council staff go home. I am aware it is not supervised but there is staff and rangers on duty in the general are during the day.

Miss lockhart you are correct I cannot remember the last time I went through the park after closing and it not been full of teenagers up to God knows what especially in the summer months.

As for the car parks closing i'd come back to insurance probably being a motive there and travellers as mentioned. Also the fact that it closes discourages people from parking cars there for days at a time.

The park is never closed, don't know why people think this.

average_runner

Lyn256 wrote: »

Sorry I didn't make it clear-I'm aware that the playground is locked, however, its supposed to be opened by 10am and on the day that my hubbie and kids were there, it was 10.30 and it hadn't been opened and seemingly, wasn't tobe opened until lunchtime!

Still no response from SDCC . . . .

It was late opening one Sunday, think it was 10.30, but the ranger has to open all the parks in SDCC at the same time!!

The lunch thing i dont understand as was talking to my wife over the weekend about it as they are there usually after 11 most days and it was open. They could of missed the day it wasnt though

josh59

dubaicentral wrote: »

I would imagine the reasons for the playground being closed has something to do with insurance purposes. At a guess i would say to stop kids using when it is dark or maybe it isn't insured once council staff go home. I am aware it is not supervised but there is staff and rangers on duty in the general are during the day.

Miss lockhart you are correct I cannot remember the last time I went through the park after closing and it not been full of teenagers up to God knows what especially in the summer months.

As for the car parks closing i'd come back to insurance probably being a motive there and travellers as mentioned. Also the fact that it closes discourages people from parking cars there for days at a time.

They close and lock the gates to the car parks for I would imagine security reasons - my wife has noticed on occasions during the day activity going on that appears to be drug dealing (people sitting in cars etc quite clearly up to no good). The Lucan Leisure centre is closing early now as well - I have heard that the staff are worried about the risks to them working late there. Unfortunately Lucan is now going through what Leixlip encountered several years ago - all the little kids are now grown up and have nothing to do.

I live in the vicinity of the park and have witnessed groups of teenagers just wandering around aimlessly with nothing to do.

A relation of mine who lived in Griffeen Glen a few years ago had to call the guards on many occasions due to people in the park interfering with his house and property.

A young boy in his early teens was set upon and viciously attacked by a group of teenage girls when he was walking home through the park a few weeks ago.

If the damn property prices weren't so crap I would be one of those looking to get out of the place as I think it's progressively getting worse. If you walk around the area where all the new estates are the amount of litter, broken trees and the general unkempt look of the place is appalling

Miss Lockhart

average_runner wrote: »

I have trained in the park up to 10 at night some nights, and never saw teenagers in the playground after its closed

I'm there much later than that most nights and I can see it from my house. There are teens in it every night. Always has been.

Lyn256

It took a week but I did get a response

There was a problem with the Gates at the Playground they have now been fixed, sorry for the inconvenience.

Regards

Christine Evans

Environmental Services Operations