Today's trip down Helensburgh's memory lane takes us back to a protest over the dilapidated play area in the town's Hermitage Park 10 years ago.
Here's how we covered the story in the Advertiser on February 4, 2010...
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AN army of angry parents descended on Hermitage Park this week in protest about the state of the children’s play area.
The protest, joined by parents and their children from all over the town, centred on the dilapidated and possibly dangerous state of some of the play equipment in the playpark.
It was organised by mum of two Katie Freer who said: “Is nobody else appalled about the state of the children’s play area in Hermitage Park?
"Over the last couple of years it has become increasingly unsafe and unsavoury, but having visited it with my two children this week I think that we can finally say that it has died.
“This is the state of the park as it stands, or should I say, falls. There are: two sets of swing bars (without swings), a rocking horse which has lost it’s leg rest, a witch’s hat that barely turns, a dangling chain and weight which presumably used to do something of interest and a few rusty, damaged and completely uninspiring climbing frames.
“The only excitement this park seemingly affords is as a place for bored youths to dig large holes up in the safety turf at night and throw it around, along with their empty bottles.”
She added: “When we get bored of playing in this debris, my son leads me into the main park where we can totter over the bridges with broken safety fences, pointing at the traffic cones below and stopping to scrabble in the broken glass.
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“Never mind, I guess we’ll just have to get our kicks elsewhere and wait until the amusement park on the pier comes to life again in all it’s horrendous, decaying, death-defying splendour!”
But she added: “Can something please not be done about the play park? There is an absolutely fantastic new one in Balloch Park, but that is a long car journey and walk away.”
The park also boasts a slide with a jagged piece of metal sticking out at the top which tears clothes and flesh and has even been known to leave children caught and unable to move.
Kelly Dunn who visits the park with her children said: “There are a few swings for toddlers but nothing for slightly bigger children and in the five years I have been coming here it has really gone downhill.”
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