Special Report by Iain Gray
THE SHADOW of the axe is hanging over two beloved playgrounds – one in Donaghadee, the other in Groomsport.
Ards and North Down Council officials want to scrap Beechfield play park in Donaghadee, arguing that the town has too many playgrounds compared to the rest of the borough.
The council says getting rid of Beechfield would allow it to refurbish the town’s Northfield play facility.
Officials also suggest axing Groomsport’s Springwell playground to carry out a £170,000 upgrade of the village’s Shorefront play park.
Both threatened facilities are comparatively small, but located in residential areas away from main roads and are very popular with their respective communities.
The axe plans were slated for discussion at a council committee meeting that got underway shortly after this newspaper went to press on Wednesday night.
Officials say they want to run public consultations on the closure moves over the next couple of months, suggesting they could be up and running before the summer.
The people of Groomsport will be given an alternative option of keeping Springwell, though at the cost of a subpar revamp of Shorefront.
But the only choice on the cards for Donaghadee appears to be a straight yes or no on closing Beechfield.
Councillors have the final say on whether to launch the closure consultations – and may back away from doing so, as a huge controversy around a similar situation down the Ards peninsula forced them into a humiliating climbdown just last month.
The people of Kircubbin revolted over a plan to scrap one of their playgrounds in order to upgrade another, the widespread outrage pressuring the council to reverse course and put the closure on hold to consider other options.
With the angry voices of the peninsula still ringing in their ears, councillors might decide that more playground closures would be too hot to handle at the minute.
Or they could endorse the views of their officials and vote to go down the axe path again.
The new closures are in line with the council’s 10-year Play Strategy, which judged six play parks around the borough to be surplus to requirements.
Both Beechfield and Springwell fell into that category; others identified as surplus include Pinks Green in Donaghadee and a small facility in the Ballyholme area of Bangor, though neither of them are actively under threat right now.
In 2021 and 2022, the strategy’s conclusions were widely protested in Groomsport and Donaghadee, with local families demanding the popular playgrounds be saved.
Beechfield and Springwell are in heavily residential areas; during the protests, parents complained that scrapping them would take away facilities their kids love, and force families to cross busy roads to get to more distant playgrounds.
The council came up with its Play Strategy as it believes some areas have too many playgrounds while others are left without, and some ageing facilities need to be modernised.
The local authority also wants to sort out an imbalance that has seen it concentrate on providing play parks for very young children while offering far less for older kids and teenagers.
But implementing it means shuttering several playgrounds, moves that have already sparked outrage from local communities angry about losing much-needed neighbourhood facilities.
