- The parents denounce the risk of accidents in playgrounds as they prepare a demonstration for next Sunday
Many of Orihuela’s playgrounds are in an appalling, and in some cases dangerous state, due to lack of maintenance. They suffer from rusty equipment, protruding screws and nails, missing apparatus, broken swings and slides and badly damaged floors.
The most damaged games have barely been replaced and the picture is repeated across the entire municipality, the city, the districts and the coast. Many playgrounds are just accidents to children that are waiting to happen.
Fed up with the situation, a group of parents has now organised a protest which they hope will force the City Council to take action on the matter as soon as possible.
Organisers say that they have sent several letters to the Council without receiving any acknowledgement. Once again, the people are simply being ignored by well-paid politicians who they have only recently elected to office. There has been no reciprocal contact and the responsible councillors have certainly offered no solutions.
To increase the pressure, they have created a Facebook page, ‘Unidos por la dejadez de las parques de Orihuela’ (United for the neglect of the Orihuela parks). It already has more than 240 followers and has a large album of regrettable photos featured from all corners of the municipality.
They have also created a WhatsApp channel through which they are organising the demonstration. A poster has already been distributed with the gathering taking place next Sunday, at 12:00 p.m., in front of the Orihuela City Town Hall.
They are not yet disseminating the information on a large scale as they do not yet have the required permission from the Government Subdelegation, to which, they say, they have already communicated their intentions, as well as to the City Council itself.
For now, their aspirations are to continue gaining followers. Thus, they are disseminating the information through the associations of parents of students of the different schools and nursery schools.
From the photos displayed on the page, everything indicates that their initiative is already being seen in districts and on the Oriola coast.
Of course the government team says that the situation is inherited from the last council and that they will get to work on they project when they have a Budget.
And as might be expected, the only parks that are currently guaranteed refurbishment are those of Glorieta and Severo Ochoa, which are, of course, both in the city centre.
