PARENTS have expressed huge concerns over the safety of King George V park after a five year-old girl was injured after falling from a broken swing earlier this month.
Questions have been asked about the safety of the park by several parents who take their children to King George V park in Melksham.
Local mum Chloe Rowles is very wary about the safety of the park after her five year-old daughter was hurt whilst playing on a swing.
Chloe said, “It was the Food and River Festival so the park was very busy. My daughter was being pushed on the large round swing when all of a sudden the swing came crashing to the ground and she fell out. Her hand was trapped as she came down and she hit her head causing a previous cut to open again and bleed. Luckily her little friend was pushing her so she wasn’t going very high but she was still hurt and very shaken up.
“It’s been broken in the past so why can’t Wiltshire Council find a solution – before someone is seriously hurt.
“The park has gone downhill anyway, it’s not as good as it was before. The roundabout has broken as well as the zip wire, the paddling pool is closed but kids can still get in the area and it’s disgustingly dirty and definitely unsafe.
“I call Wiltshire Council’s emergency number straight away and they took my details and said someone would get back to me, but I didn’t hear anything from anyone until Wednesday, so we didn’t know whether it was safe to go back on the swing or not.”
Chloe warned other parents about the broken swing on Facebook, prompting further concerns about the safety of the park to be voiced. One parent wrote, “I was there not long ago and had both my girls and two of my friends kids on that swing. I was pushing them very high – I’d dread to think what would have happened if it broke then.”
A Wiltshire Council spokesperson said, “We hope the young girl is now ok and we’d like to thank the mum for reporting the swing incident to us. The swing bracket had been unclipped which caused the incident so this was rectified the same day.
“We inspect all our play equipment weekly according to Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents standards but we are always grateful to the public for reporting any concerns which may occur in between these inspections so we can attend quickly.”
