Belmont Road park refurb plans confirmed by Northwich Town Council

Broken equipment, shards of glass and condom wrappers are some of the things you may see at Belmont Road Play Area in Rudheath.

Olly Southgate, 43, travels over from York most weekends to spend time with his daughter Isla.

They often visit the park but notice that it has steadily deteriorated.

Olly said: “It’s just become an eyesore and it's not even functional anymore, there’s just nothing there.

“I think that the local community have just resided to the fact that it’s a no-go area.

“I haven’t seen another child there for a long time.”

Belmont Road Play Area (Image: Google Maps)

Olly explained that one of the swings was removed several months ago.

On their latest visit, they found that the other swing had been vandalised, with the seat dumped in a nearby woodland.

He is now urging the council to take action.

“The council may not see this as a priority, but these parks mean so much to the local community, it’s all the children who live on that estate have got,” Olly said.

“With mental health, wellbeing and physical fitness being so high on councils’ agendas nowadays, they need to start backing that up.”

Olly added: "It's become an accident waiting to happen.

“It’s dangerous. There are bits of timber falling off, nails sticking out, and glass everywhere.

“I’m always having to pick up litter and even one time a condom which was left right underneath the swing – it’s hard to explain that to a six-year-old!”

The broken swing was found dumped nearby (Image: Supplied)

Northwich Town Council took over the lease of the play area from Cheshire West and Chester Council in 2019, along with five other sites.

All of the other sites have now been refurbished, having been in 'worse condition'.

As such, it is finally time for the Belmont Road park to receive some attention.

A council spokesperson said: “As Belmont is now next on the list we are actively looking at refurbishing and will be going out to consultation in the next few months with residents before we submit a funding application for the refurbishment.

"The play area is inspected on a weekly basis and all faults reported and the site made safe, we will discuss the damage with local officers and community wardens and ask that they increase patrols of the area.”

Broken, rotting, wood and litter are some of the issues plaguing the park (Image: Supplied)

Meanwhile, Cheshire Police has said that Olly’s concerns will be raised with local officers and community wardens to ask that they increase patrols of the area.