Bury St Edmunds mums' anger over 'atrocious' play park in Abbey Gardens

Mums have hit out at the ‘atrocious’ state of play equipment in Bury St Edmunds’ Abbey Gardens after obscene graffiti was daubed on a toddler swing.

Part of the play park has been fenced off for more than two months and could be out of action until spring after an inspection found that wooden supports had ‘degraded’.

It has left just a rope swing and two toddler swings – one of which was targeted by vandals with offensive graffiti.

The attack was the ‘final straw’ for one mum who felt the area had been ‘totally abandoned’, despite being a prominent town centre attraction.

Another mum said: “It’s just atrocious and it isn’t really up to the standard of everything else in the town. For a lovely town, it should have a lovely park for people to enjoy.”

West Suffolk Council, which has since removed the graffiti, said it hoped to reopen the play area in the spring but there had been delays with sourcing replacement equipment.

The authority also needed Government consent as the Abbey Gardens are a scheduled monument.

But the mum-of-one, who felt the area had been abandoned after discovering the graffiti on Monday morning when she took her daughter, questioned why equipment in such a central location was in a degraded state.

“It feels like it’s a completely ignored area,” she said. “It feels like no care has been taken to look after it.

“There’s a real disconnection between how smart the gardens are to the playground which is embarrassing. It really isn’t a good showcase of our town. I would like to see a functioning, safe playground – somewhere we feel safe and confident for our children to play.”

The other mum added that play parks in towns such as Sudbury, Diss and Newmarket were ‘absolutely incredible’ but Bury was ‘woefully underserved’.

“It’s such a lovely town and such a rubbish park for people to go to,” she said.

Another mum Coral Target, who takes her daughter Daisy three times a week to the play area, also found the graffiti on Monday.

She said: “I was just shocked and thought thank goodness my child can’t read because she was looking at it and she said ‘oh mummy there’s my name’.

“This is meant to be my child’s safe space and it’s quite worrying actually that someone felt the need to write it on a young children’s swing.

“You see children come here after school and there’s just nothing for them. Whether it’s boredom or showing off, there’s nothing really for the older children.”

Cllr Jo Rayner, Deputy Leader of West Suffolk Council and cabinet member for leisure, culture and community hubs, apologised that the play area was unavailable.

“We are very aware of its importance and are working hard to restore and reopen it in the spring,” she said.

“A routine independent inspection found that some of the wooden supports in the multi play unit had degraded.

“Safety comes first, so we have cordoned off the area affected and are working on sourcing replacement equipment.

“Regrettably, we are experiencing long lead in periods for equipment post pandemic and Brexit, added to which the gardens are a scheduled monument, so as well as quotes for the costs and installation we need to seek consent from the Secretary of State.”

Cllr Rayner added that the graffiti on the swing had been removed.

“Unfortunately, we do occasionally get graffiti daubed on equipment and for small scale areas our staff have wipes which they use to try and remove it,” she said.

“For larger graffitied areas or graffiti which is harder to shift we employ the services of a specialist external contractor.

“We appreciate that the play area in the Abbey Gardens is the only town centre play facility and is extremely well used.

“Over the autumn and winter we will aim to get the new equipment installed so that it is in a fit state for use in the spring.”