Just had an email from Derbyshire Police to say someone started a fire there the other day which has damaged a ramp and the zip wire - it is being treated as arson

Still picking up broken glass from the paths in the Park at 2.00 pm today. This was after the council workers had been in first thing this morning cleaning up the disgusting mess around the skate park and the playground. They are having to come in every weekend now, as the littering is so bad. As for the numpties coming in from Chapel and New Mills, I believe one of our councillors was reported as saying some time ago that he hoped the Park would draw in people from all over the area - well, he has got his wish. I spoke to the two playground maintenance workers the other day, busy clearing up after the fire. They said that having some 20 years experience of the parks round here, they had advised against using wooden play equipment, but were totally ignored. Like them, I believe that now they have got away with that fire, they will set fire to the other wooden structures. Remember, we are only just starting the six week summer holiday.And to those people who will no doubt shout me down as being unduly anti kids, I would just say that nice as some of the kids are in ones and twos, get a gang of them fuelled by drink and any other substance and they turn into feral, uncontrolled yobs. Which brings me to another point; many of these kids are obviously under 18, and yet they are able to get cans and bottles of booze and quite blatantly sit around the skate park and in the playground drinking it. Surely this is against the law, so why are the police not doing something about it? I am a great supporter of the police, and I realise that with cut backs they have a difficult task, but I am beginning to think that they are turning a blind eye to what goes on in the park area, as it keeps the kids away from the main street in Whaley. It is all quite depressing and eventually some child is going to be badly injured on some of the rubbish left lying around. Any ideas from anyone as to what can be done to stop this?

Do our local councillor ever take a walk round the park ? I would suggest evening times and an early stroll before the poor guy who has to deal with the clean up on weekend mornings does his job . The alcohol is probably purchased quite legitimately as many of the revellers are over 18 , sadly the are encouraging the younger children to drink , hence the anti - social behaviour . I am sure some of these kids must be recognisable , name and shame

Perhaps we should ask all those involved in maintaining the Park to put away their Enid Blyton "Secret Seven" and "Famous Five" books and try William Golding's "Lord of the Flies". They would certainly get a more realistic view of what happens when large numbers of adolescent kids get together without any supervision or control from adults.

no need to 'fear' any of my actions....Like i say all parks have issues....and im not one for taking my little man out to a park at 4am! And i wouldnt expect anyone to be monitoring at that time. As its summer, young kids are still about with parents in parks up till 8 ish at night, and as i mentioned earlier having teenagers in kids play areas drinking,  smoking, swearing abusing drugs around 5-7 etc is not fair.

To be honest Im not too fussed about confronting them......you get a bit of verbal back, thats kids for you ...Im better at it than them tho...but never makes much difference as they know you will go , and the park is theirs again...

My post is about the childrens play area as noted. Which is where I take my son.....

My local ones in Chinley and Buggy, are old and in need of investment, so we like to take him around the area to all the parks....

As you mention new mills....over the past few weeks they have been dropping in new equipment for the kids.....all made of metal, not fossil fuels.

of course we have seen rubbish in other parks and issues with older kids etc , I have just been highlighting the fact that Whaleys is new, lots of cash must have been spent , it is unfinished, the equipment is not suitable and some what dangerous. Just seems so ill thought out.

And yes you could just say, 'why dont you go sumwhere else if you dont like it' ........we do....we use all the parks...

pensionman....you have it there..

kids will always find the most out of the way place, from prying eyes of parents to have fun...sure we were all there back in the day.

But to actively supply them a place, one that cannot be seen or monitored in any easy manner , when the area was revamped at cost for children half their age and younger

is just daft.


And it seems that of all the peeps who come of the forum, not may are bothered or passing comment, after all it was their council funding that has paid for all this. Never mind the continual costs if it continues to be vandalized, are peeps more interested in crying about the red telephone box in the carpark for tourists , rather than their local park?.....is it a I dont use it, keeps the kids off the street at night away from the main road.....so it doesn't bother me attitude.?...

Just to say that there is a meeting at the Mechanics on Monday 4th August at 7.00 pm when Whaley Bridgites can raise various points with Derbyshire Police. I hope as many people as possible attend this meeting and raise the question of vandalism and general misbehaviour in the Park. If anything is to be done, then surely this would be a good place to start?

The whole meeting was about the problems in the Park. Meeting was very well attended, especially by people who live along the roads leading to the Park, who are experiencing dreadful behaviour from kids on their way there. Three police officers attended the meeting, as well as the Manager of Tesco. Oh, and three "social workers" who pointed out that these poor kids often had terrible backgrounds, and responded better if people were not "rude to them"!!! At this point a large portion of the people attending got up and walked out in disgust. The police are putting three officers on "park duties" on a Friday night to see if that settles things down. There was a chap from some charity there, who has worked mainly round the Manchester area now moving into Peak District, working on situations like this. He said that they had achieved good success by finding some spare land away from residential/leisure areas, putting up some sort of hut and letting the kids use that as a meeting place, thus keeping the problems and mess well away from residents and users of the Park. Felt sorry for the police, whose hands are tied. They can only charge underage drinkers if they have actually bought the alcohol themselves, or they can charge an adult for buying drink for underage drinkers. They cannot do anything about kids drinking except to take the drink away from them. They did suggest that if there were any receipts found with the cans and boxes of booze scattered round the Park, and they are Tesco receipts, they should be taken to the Park Ranger, Paul Evans, who will ask Tesco to check their security cameras to see who bought them and if there is evidence that they were bought to hand on to underage drinkers, they can then pass it on to police.

That's just a quick resume of the meeting, a lot of things said, but not an awful lot of things that can be done.

I understaNd what you mean about the hut, Wanderer returns, but it would be "overseen" by the social workers and the police to the same extent as the Park is "overseen" now. The only thing that would change would be that residents living near the Park and respectful users of the Park would not be disturbed by the kids. This chap from the charity said that this was done very successfully in several areas of Manchester, after they had questionned large numbers of kids in those areas. They didn't want stimulation or structure - just somewhere they could do their own thing. When you think about it, that's what they are doing in the Park. Who knows, once they are knee deep in litter, they might even begin to clean up after themselves as well!

As for being rude to them, since when has it been rude to ask them to pick up a bottle or can that they have just dropped on the ground in front of you?

Another point made by the police was that if there are any incidents of noise or rudeness, these should be reported on the non-emergency police number (is 101?....not much use to me when I can't even remember the number!); although the police may not attend, the call is logged and the more calls that come in, the more notice the police take. Oviously, if you or your property are being threatened, you ring 999.

They also said that this problem tended to move from one town to another. Usually, once the police up their presence in an area experiencing problems, all the kids move on to another town and take over another Park. I have spoken to people in New Mills, Chapel and Hayfield and they have all reported the same problems in the past. Obviously, this is Whaley Bridge's time, but having said that I still don't think we should just grit our teeth and put up with it. Why should we? The Park is there for relaxation, peace and recreation, not a place for gangs of kids to take over and intimidate other people, as well as leaving a breathtaking trail of litter and vandalism behind them for other people to clear up.

Must agree with above comments , a quick litter overview this afternoon cake wrappers , bottled drinks , cans , cartoned drinks , crisp packs , sweet wrappers , the list goes on . Hardly deprived children , they appear to have substantial disposable income . A small group enjoying a little afternoon tipple around the table to add to the ambiance .