Groat article helped stop plague of vandalism at Wick’s Grizzly Park playpark

A recent article by one of our reporters was highlighted at a meeting of Wick’s community council as helping nip vandalism in the bud at a local kids’ playpark.

Groat reporter Alan Hendry published an article on August 7 called ‘Wick’s new playpark equipment targeted by vandals’ in which the issue was discussed at last month’s meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council (RBWCC).

It stated that the town’s community councillors were dismayed that the Grizzly Park playpark was targeted by vandals just as new equipment was being installed.

The RBWCC chair, Allan Bruce, said at that time: “The community council fought to get the reinstatement of some form of play equipment at the Grizzly Park after the stuff had been stripped away from it.”

Highland Council had allocated more than £145,000 of Scottish Government funding towards the project, featuring a “unique design” that community councillors said would make it the best in the north.

At last week’s RBWCC meeting on September 1, the chairman said that he had written to Evan Sinclair from the council’s amenity services for updates on the issue.

“He said that the news article seems to have done the trick and there’s been no major issues with vandalism since,” said Mr Bruce.

Quoting Mr Sinclair, he said: “The park is coming on great and we hope it will be finished by the end of the week. It will need to be inspected before it’s opened.”

RBWCC members let out a laugh after that and commented that children had taken it upon themselves to start using the refurbished equipment before the official opening. “There are so many bairns there already,” said RBWCC member Joanna Coghill. “Well, at least it’s getting tested,” added the chair.

Mr Bruce continued: “When Highland Council originally removed the equipment from [Grizzly Park], it was brought up around this table that it was unacceptable that there were no plans in place. To be honest, after going up and looking at it the other day, it’s a lot more than we ever expected. We thought there might be a few swings and a chute but it really is fantastic.

“Thanks have to go to Evan [Sinclair] and his team as they’ve done a lot of it themselves and the whole idea behind that was too drive the cost of the installation down so that they could get more equipment.”

The chair described Grizzly Park as a “success story” and hoped there would be an official opening of the playpark in the near future.

Grab your first year of a Digital+ subscription for £20, available to new subscribers using the promo code DAVIDGSCOTT

Benefits include: Unlimited access to articles on all HNM websites, the ad-free HNM App, read every e-edition plus past paper catalogue going back over a year, access to all titles at HNM and exclusive subscriber events.