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The playground in Castlehaven Gardens |
Heartless crooks make off with kids' playground
THIEVES posing as builders with hard hats and pneumatic drills
stole equipment from a community centre’s children’s
playground in Camden Town.
According to eyewitness, three men were seen removing a seesaw,
swings and a chicken on a spring from the playground from Castlehaven
Gardens at 10am last Sunday.
The equipment – which cost the Castlehaven Community Centre
£3,000 after a fund-raising offensive in 2001 – were
embedded six feet into the ground and locked down with concrete
girders.
The centre was temporarily housed in Hawley Road while the council
revamped the area.
The works, which began in January 2006, drew £195,000
from the Government’s Liveability Fund to make Castlehaven
gardens “safer, greener and more welcoming for local residents.”
Because works were ongoing, unknowing residents assumed builders
were working overtime.
Eyewitness Peter Turner who is on the Castlehaven centre committee,
woke on Sunday morning to the sound of heavy drilling.
He said: “It made me look out of the window. There were
three men in hard hats with pneumatic drills. I thought they
were just putting in some extra hours.
The next day, centre manager Eleanor Botwright confronted contractors
Daley Watkins about the missing playground who said no work
was planned for Sunday because the project was on schedule.
She said: “I phoned the police immediately. It sounds like
a bad joke, especially when you know the builders were there
under Camden’s Liveability fund – which is supposed
to improve community safety.”
Billy Osbourne, who volunteers at the centre said: “I used
to say anything could get nicked from Camden unless it was bolted
down – but now I’m not sure. It’s a shame because
a lot of time and effort went into getting that the playground
there in the first place.”
The centre and the contractors are negotiating over who is accountable. |
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