THE park in Runcorn Road Playing Field was closed due to being ‘unsafe’, the chairman of Barton Parish Council has claimed.

The park has been padlocked off for several weeks, with work begun on removing the ageing equipment taking place over the course of the month.

Cllr Keith Reading tried to restore the park several years ago with a fresh coat of paint.

Speaking at the last Barnton Parish Council meeting, Cllr Dilys Hooper, chairman of the council, said the park was ‘condemned all those years ago’.

“At the minute it’s just for a few kids to kick a ball about and these two tatty swings that we had and a tatty slide that Keith painted two years ago,” Cllr Hooper said.

“It was condemned all those years ago.”

After the last inspection, Cllr Reading told the chairman ‘a coat of paint is now not going to suffice’, and the park was subsequently closed.

She said: “I shut the park there and then because of safety reasons, because that is what we are here to do, to ensure that the general public are in a safe environment.

“They weren’t in a safe environment so I locked the gates until we could sort out how we’re going to remove it.”

However, the decision has not gone down well with some residents.

Tome Tavener, who has lived in Runcorn Rod for 25 years, slammed the parish council for closing the park without consulting the village.

Mr Tavener said: “The Parish Council have now taken it on themselves to close it altogether.

“This at a time when the government is expressing grave concern about childhood obesity and encouraging youngsters to get more exercise.

“How shall we go about that here in Northwich? Of course, close off one of the very few open spaces for children to play on that exists in the village. Genius. A Masterstroke.”

The council now plan to launch a public survey to the village of Barton.

Cllr Hooper said one of the options the council wanted to push was to create a play area for ball games only, along with communal ‘Vegetable and flower gardens’.

Cllr Hooper said the scheme is a ‘village project for villagers’.

“We’re not taking up a great deal of the park.” She said.

“In fact it will be a better park than what it was the first time round, even with the growing spaces.”