Palmerston Residents Association Day Six In Who The Real Friend Of Victoria Park Belfast City Counci

The Palmerston Residents Association visited the Tommy Patton Memorial Park on the Holywood Road in East Belfast the park sits on the old playing fields of Ashfield School,the park is equipped with a play area for children. Not very far away there is another park on the Circular Road Belfast it also has a play area for the young children. We would like to take you back to our two photographs of the play area at Victoria Park, as you can see this park has inadequate facilities for children. Amazingly it sits in the highest density area for young children, the area covers the Sydenham District which ranges from back to back housing with little or no gardens front or back. Sydenham has major health problems both physical and mental illness exists, alongside anti social behaviour and the area is rated by the DSD as an area of risk. The Palmerston Residents Association has seen Victoria park slowly wound down we have heard other groups say they want to save Victoria Park, some groups blame the deterioration of the park on aircraft passing overhead, we ask these groups to look at our photographs and judge for them selves. We have seen our park exploited by some groups to advance their own agenda, the difference with the Palmerston Residents Association is we have no agenda only to improve the area for our community and get facilities to the area that will take children of the streets and away from antisocial behaviour and crime. The association see our area deteriorate with less and less green spaces for our children to play. we see more and more signs going up saying No Ball Games, No Skate Boarding,No Admittance Residents Only and no cycling .Children have a right to play under the UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD article 31 of the convention sets out the child's right to engage in play and recreational activities http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm. We want our younger generation to have inclusive play and equal access in leisure opportunities including disabled children. we can see by our photographs how unequal the play facilities are in Victoria Park yet it is in an area of risk, we also see from our photographs the over flying planes could not have caused this deterioration of Victoria Park it is man made. We need to put the spotlight on the people who are responsible for this and away from other issues the association feels that our park should and must be brought up to the same standard of other capital cities. We need both council investment and business to invest in Victoria Park we should campaign and petition the members of the parks committee for improvements to the park and write to, email or telephone whatever it takes to demand the MLA's act regarding Victoria Park Play Facilities for children. The association feels that the park is large enough for the council to act now, if they are concerned about the widening of the Sydenham By Pass that is no excuse just relocate it to a better position in the park where children will not have to inhale fumes from passing cars and lorries on the Sydenham By Pass. Use the site the play area is on for tree planting. We urge you to read our final issue on Victoria Park day seven why not take a look at our new blog site for our youth in the community visit http://palmerston-play.spaces.live.com/