The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Vandals striking again at Orton Wistow Park
Swings and a roundabout have been fenced off at a Peterborough park after vandals struck for a second time.
When children were enjoying the final few days of the school holidays, the timing could not have been worse for families, as much of Orton Wistow Park was fenced off in a bid to keep children using it safe.
Earlier last month, the slide was cut with a saw, and now bolts have been removed from a zip wire, while swings and a roundabout have also been damaged.
Now there are fears about the future of the park. Orton Waterville councillor, Kirsty
Knight, said she was thinking about using some of her ‘Community Leadership Fund’ money to repair the equipment. The CLF is an amount of money given to all councillors for projects in their ward.
However, she said she was concerned about using it on the park as she was worried the equipment would just get vandalised again.
She said: “Residents are disgusted by what has happened. The park is mainly used by primary school children, and they could have been hurt quite badly as a result of the damage caused.
“It is going to cost thousands of pounds to fix. I am thinking of putting my CLF money towards fixing it, but I don’t want to do that if it is just going to get vandalised again.
“The park is only three
years old. I worked with the people designing it in 2021 to make sure it was right. Now we are worried about losing it if it costs too much to repair.”
A spokesperson for Peterborough
City Council said: “We are aware of this incident which has been reported to the police. Vandals have damaged a slide which will need to be replaced, a roundabout and swing unit were also damaged. We have been made aware of some damage to one of the multiplay units. At present, we do not have cost for repair work as this is being finalised.
“The damaged equipment has been made safe and taped off and the park is open as usual.”
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “Further vandalism at Orton Wistow Park has been reported to us and an investigation is ongoing. We’ve increased patrols in the area and an investigation is looking at all reasonable lines of enquiry. Anyone with information about this criminal damage should contact us.”