UK playground so bad it’s been compared to Chernobyl

A seaside playground left to rot has been compared to Chernobyl – and locals blame the council.

On the promenade at Weston Shore, there’s swing without chains, a rusty climbing frame, and a spring rider with no children swaying.

It’s just a derelict playground – paint chipping, overgrown and strewn with sand on the seafront near Southampton.

‘There’s just nothing left here apart from a manky old sand pit’, retired contracts manager Julie Bishop, 67, said after a visit with her granddaughter.

‘It’s not a park anymore. It used to be but they have just taken everything away, it’s just an area on the seafront. There’s nothing here. It’s a bit of an eye sore.’

Sat alongside four shelters and numerous seating area, built in the 1930s, this is one of the only accessible sections of waterfront in Southampton

But it’s hardly a place to make happy memories. Lyn Graham, a 78-year-old who grew up nearby, said: ‘If people come down to the shore with their kids, they don’t want to go back over there to the other park.

‘This was the playground I went to when I was younger, it was lovely then.’

Images shared online drew descriptions like ‘depressing, and a ‘waste of land’.

One person even said it looks ‘remarkably similar’ to the set of HBO’s Chernobyl, based on the nuclear disaster that left the area surrounding Chernobyl – or Chornobyl – deserted in Ukraine.

Local resident Graham Westerling, whose family has lived in the area since the 1920s, blames the local council for the current state of affairs.

The 77-year-old retired toolmaker and hovercraft designer said: ‘I believe that its current decrepitude is council policy.

‘They have built a new playground across the road and see the old one on the shore as wasteful. The park has been changed many times since I first went there in the late 40s.

‘The shore has been our playground for all of that time. The remains of the park are shabby but the area is still well used.

‘When the ice cream van quits I’ll know we’re in trouble.’

Another resident, Robert Stead, raised the issue in a letter to the local newspaper.

In it, he said: ‘As a resident of the Weston Estate, I know how much residents value our shore.

‘Clearly something not shared by the Southampton council, who are only too happy to neglect it in favour of their other pet projects in the city.’

Although this particular playground is out of use, there are plans to build a new one nearby, according to council leader Lorna Fielker.

She said: ‘The play area was closed as the old equipment was no longer safe and beyond repair.

‘The council has already run a public consultation on a proposal for a new and exciting play area close by in the field adjacent to Weston Parade, we are finalising plans to build this, and we look forward to announcing the installation date in the new year.’

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