Calls for park to be shut at night after vandals strike
A councillor has called for a Black Country park to be locked up at night after vandals damaged fitness equipment just days after it was installed.
Yobs have torn the arms of the new rowing machine at Leybourne Park in Tipton, which was added last week to encourage youngsters to keep fit.
Local councillor Steve Jones fears the equipment will be removed if it keeps getting damaged and now believes keeping people out of the park at night could be the solution.
Some parks in Sandwell are locked at night.
He said: "If they carry on vandalising it the council will take the equipment out.
"It's a nice little park and we're just trying to make it a little better and more aesthetically pleasing.
"It has been a long-term plan to do something at the park and this has come at the first hurdle."
Councillor Jones has a meeting planned with bosses at Sandwell Council in the next few days and he is hoping an agreement can be reached to try to protect the fitness facilities.
The new equipment was added through council public health funding and also partly from cash pledged to the community from developers constructing new homes nearby.
Councillor Jones said he was saddened that the vandals were trying to spoil the enjoyment of people wanting to use the equipment.
"I spoke to a resident who says he used it every morning. There are people wrecking it and people using it - they can't co-exist.
"We are going to get resistance if we leave it there and we are going to get resistance if we move it. I don't want them to take it out, we have got to do something to try and stop them wrecking it," he said.
