Vandals repeatedly target Coate Water accessible play park

The Coate Water play park was eagerly anticipated by Swindon families for many months, but particularly those with children living with disabilities because it was designed to be the most accessible outdoor park in the town. 

But local campaign group Mums on a Mission, who were involved in the park's planning and development have been extremely saddened to see that many of the park's interactive and disability-friendly elements have been seemingly deliberately damaged since it opened in March. 

Anna Bird, speaking on behalf of MOAM, said: "Overall we'd say that we're thrilled with the new park, and our children are thoroughly enjoying playing there - but the vandalism is honestly quite devastating."

In early April the wheelchair-accessible fort was completely covered in sand, with someone deliberately taking large amounts and throwing it in the area.

On the same day, she also noticed one of the large interactive metal chimes was broken. 

Towards the end of April, it was discovered that a panel on the gate into the wheelchair-accessible swing area was broken.

"It looked like it had been kicked in. We reported this straight away to the Council who agreed it sounded like vandalism and shared our frustration," said Anna. 

"We felt especially sad because it is very obvious that this is the gate to a very specialist piece of equipment for disabled children and whoever did this will have known that but not cared."

Vandalism to the sand pit, a metal chime and the gate to the wheelchair accessible swing gate at Swindon's Coate Water play park (Image: Mums on a Mission)

Anna returned to the park on a bank holiday Monday with her daughter Emily and was pleased to see that the wooden gate and the metal chimes appeared to have been fixed. 

But she noticed further issues. The metal chimes were missing the stick used to play them, two sets of wooden chime units were missing pieces, the sandpit was still covered and the metal strong box that housed the key to the wheelchair-accessible key had been damaged. 

"There was a note in there asking us to collect it from the Rangers office which is a huge faff, especially when my daughter Emily was already on the swing in her wheelchair and was expecting to get going."

"The rangers told me that unfortunately the strong box had been broken into using something like a crowbar, and the key had gone. We are assuming it was taken but for what reason I cannot even begin to imagine."

The rangers have a spare key which they are keeping in the rangers' office. 

"We always wanted this swing to be as easily accessible to the public as possible, and the last thing we wanted was families having to go to get a key from the rangers' office.

"However I do understand why the Council don't want to put the spare key in the strong box, because if that goes missing or gets stolen then we won't be able to use it again!"

A note inside the lock box a the wheel-chair accessible swing at Swindon's Coate Water play park telling members of the public to get the key for it at the rangers' office after the original key was stolen by someone with a crowbar. (Image: Mums on a Mission)

Anna added that three children, including one from a family that had travelled from Cheltenham, used the wheelchair-accessible swing, and like her daughter, they all loved it. 

Mums on a Mission say they will be visiting the park frequently in the lead up to summer and will continue to inspect the equipment, and flag up any problems to Swindon Borough Council straight away.

"We absolutely love this wonderful play park and our children are thoroughly enjoying playing there. But this persistent vandalism is really disappointing and distressing for us and the families that follow us," they said. 

Responding to a post on the group's Facebook page, councillor Matty Courtliff also bemoaned the vandalism and indicated the council was looking into getting CCTV in the area. 

"It’s absolutely gutting that our brand-new park is being vandalised by a mindless few," he said.