Councillor welcomes play park fundraising

An Isles of Scilly Councillor has welcomed a fundraising campaign aimed at re-opening the Garrison play park on St Mary's.

Scilly Fish owner Eugene Hogan is raising money for the park, which has been closed since early September due to safety concerns.

Lead Member for Children Joel Williams praised his efforts at Tuesday's Full Council meeting.

He said: "The inspection of the site as well as other play sites has now taken place. In the meantime there's obviously been some social media interest in the site, particularly from a member of the community who is looking to raise some funds, which I totally welcome. I think it's great that people use social media to develop some positive action and take a lead on things rather than a lot of the criticism and moaning which we often associate with social media.

"I know Mr Hogan has so far raised £1,100 for the site at the Garrison and that's pledges from 47 different individuals, which I think demonstrates the sort of commitment people want to see for play provision on Scilly and hopefully that will move forward. If we can get other groups and organisations to help with the fundraising I'd like to think we can get the play parks in a much better state than they currently are."

Cllr Jonathan Smith agreed that it was great to have support from the community, adding: "I think we as a Council need to think quite carefully about these assets going forward. I think this can be viewed in a very positive light in terms of buy-in from the community because assets can also be liabilities, can't they? We need to be quite aware of that."

Donate to Eugene's campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/the-pirate-ship-play-park-the-garrison.