A Beacon Valley resident has called for the park next to her home to be fenced in to control access to it – and to stop children in the park kicking their balls against her home.
Chantel Hendricks, who has been working from home during the pandemic, said children in the park had thrown stones at her house and kicked their ball against it.
The park, which is being renovated, currently has no playground equipment in it and is covered in sand.
Ms Hendricks said she had engaged with City officials about the park and had asked that a fence be erected around it.
“I work from home during the pandemic (and) the park situation has caused unrest. The children who make use of the park have thrown stones onto my carport which has been damaged before as well as the ball-kicking affecting my carport,” she said.
Ms Hendricks said in addition to the erection of a fence, she and her neighbours would like the park to be kept clean, the sand removed and the ground tarred.
Sub-council 12 chairman Solomon Philander said he is aware of the park and the concerns about it.
In 2011 a group of residents approached Mr Philander informing him that the playground equipment had caused many children to get hurt. With consultation and agreement with the community they replaced the play equipment with a slide and planted grass, he said.
“We appealed to the community to allow the grass to set in at least two weeks before playing on the grass. This is a very difficult thing to handle as the children did not listen to the adults in the street,” he said.
“This was wasted money as the ownership was not coming through,” he said, adding that fencing was something that had to be budgeted for.
He also emphasised that it was not possible to fence all parks in the area.
“I was approached by the community that they want to take ownership of the park. The council removed the play equipment as it was not safe to play on it and that the grounds were levelled by City parks,” said Mr Philander.
He added that he had asked the community to propose a plan for the park but as this had not been sent to him, they had continued with the work to remove the equipment and level the grounds.
The purpose of the park is to have children play in it, “however we call on parents and adults to assist in keeping children safe and monitoring the behavioural issues identified by the resident,” he said.
“This park was upgraded during my tenure, however we must understand the challenges and also how everyone contributed to make it a success,” said Mr Philander.
