Residents demandplay area for kids

Those residents say that there are around one thousand signatories to a petition opposed to a planned development of 115 homes on a field near Petrie Place, which they believe should be used as an open space for children to play.

One concerned resident, Gareth Dallas, spoke about his fears for children’s safety and about what he sees as the potential for an area designated as an “open space” in the planning application to become a hub of anti-social behaviour.

He said: “We have already had three murders on the Blackburn Path – that’s what we would say to the idea of the Riverside Walk included as the open space in the planning application. It is at the bottom of a big, sloping hill; away from any houses and with an off-licence at the bottom of it.”

Mr Dallas said that the people living in the area had been led to believe that the area subject to the planning application would be zoned as a public space.

He said: “There is not one open space in the area and there must be around a thousand houses. The 115 houses are planned for a fairly substantial field on one side of the homes and everybody was on the understanding that they would be used as a space for children to kick a ball, play cricket or fly a kite.

“The public space they are proposing as a part of this planning application I believe this is going to end up as a drinking den. We have been around the doors and there are about a thousand names on a petition opposed to this planning application. I’ve been told the council will let me talk to them on the 11th of September. I’m going in there with the petition with a thousand names.

“We don’t know the processes. We are ordinary people. All we can do is round up public opinion for some open space for children to kick a ball or fly a kite.”

Steven Hamill, another resident concerned at the proposals, told the Sentinel about the safety issues children are faced with every day, living in an area with no play area for children. He said: “There is nowhere for the children to play and when you drive around you can see how dangerous it is. People have to slow the cars to less than five mile an hour and even then.

“More houses would mean more kids and more traffic. You’ve got the whole area to the left of Edenmore Road and all the residents have been waiting to see when a play area would be going in to that space and they are now adding to the problem with extra houses.”