Action taken after child burned

At a meeting of Mid Ulster District Council’s environment committee, Councillor John McNamee revealed that a child playing basketball at the play park on Orritor Street had entered waste ground beside the park to retrieve his ball.

“He went to retrieve a basketball and stepped into the waste ground and received terrible burns from what everybody thought was some type of hogweed or some sort of invasive species,” said Councillor McNamee.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a spokesperson for the council said the warning signs will be put in place today (Friday, July 10) as the park reopens, with a more permanent solution to follow.

“The invasive plant is not on the council’s property and we have been in contact with the landowner on whose ground a potential invasive species may be growing,” said a council spokesperson.

“As a precaution, we are erecting warning along the shared boundary to raise awareness of the potential danger and to discourage anyone from accessing the adjacent land.

“In addition we are considering other measures, including the erection of higher fencing, to act as a further deterrent to anyone trying to access the land in question.”

The issue was discussed again at a meeting of Mid Ulster District Council’s development committee.

Chair of the development committee, Councillor John McNamee, asked council’s Head of Service, Nigel Hill, for an update on the situation.

In response, council’s Head of Service, Nigel Hill, told members they are aware of the incident but said despite reports of hogweed, his staff have been unable to find any on the site.

“The adjoining properties are in private sector ownership and again, from an inspection, no hogweed is visible to any of our staff who are sufficiently trained and aware to identify it.

“Property services are putting together a plan to cordon off that area, it won’t be in place by tomorrow (Friday, June 10) but we are trying to get it done as quickly as possible.”

Councillor McNamee said the local authority must be seen to be doing something urgently.

Meanwhile, Councillor Martin Kearney raised the issue of an incident at a play park in Glenone.

“This time last week, (Thursday, July 2) at the play park in Glenone, a silage trailer managed to off-load right into the play park.

“Luckily it was closed but the park is at a very dangerous roundabout,” said Cllr Kearney.

“The entire contents of the trailer ended up into the play park so I would like to put on record the concerns I have about the roundabout and I will be following that up with the Department for Infrastructure.”

Responding to this, Mr Hill said: “In relation to that item, the section of fence has been replaced, it was done by the party that was involved in the incident and that work has been completed and it is secure again.”

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