Opinion

Parks should be reclaimed from hooligans

A POLICE tweet that ‘it just isn’t on’ for drunken youths to rip up the special surface of a children’s play area in a Belfast park is something of an understatement.

The Falls Park has been the scene of large-scale antisocial behaviour several times in the recent past. Police have been attacked as they went about their duty of attempting to keep the public safe. 

Cars have been pelted with stones and other missiles as they drove along the Whiterock and Falls Roads. Luckily no-one has been seriously injured in any of these incidents so far.

But it takes a special sort of selfishness to wilfully damage a children’s play area in what should be a safe, recreational environment for residents of all areas.

Police face a daunting task in patrolling this park and the adjoining City Cemetery. This huge area of ground is bounded by the Whiterock and Falls Roads and housing estates on the Glen and Springfield Roads. It is an area which has provided facilities such as football pitches, tennis courts and even an outdoor swimming pool down through the years.

Nowadays it is popular with joggers, dog walkers and parents of small children enjoying the wide open spaces and the play park.

It is essential that parents know where their children are and intervene to curb their antisocial behaviour before it degenerates into something more serious.

The Falls Park and other public areas should be places where everyone can go to relax. They can be, if every assistance is given to police in reclaiming such places from hooligans.