Toilets Campaign – Press Release
As part of our ongoing campaign to keep the park toilets open, the following is a press release sent to the media – let’s see how the press report it (clearly we have a had some crime incidents since the release was prepared):
“At the end of March the Public toilets in Sandall Park will be closed by the council. This issue has caused an amount of angst amongst the members of the Friends of Sandall Park (FOSP). As volunteers we have worked hard to ensure that the clear neglect of the park in recent years has been reversed. We have not done this alone but have worked hard with members of the Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) to create a safe environment. In most cases where crime is concerned FOSP provide evidence against offenders and the SNT process them. There have been no instances of damage or theft in the park since last August. Six offenders have been brought to justice.
I point this out because it is wrong to say that ‘the Council’ per se are totally responsible for the demise of the park because in the main we work very well with the local teams and have achieved a lot – but I feel that probably an individual in a key position within the council is responsible for this situation. Someone who does not have a clue what is going on in the park, someone who does not realise that Sandall Park is a Doncaster wide asset visited by people from across the borough (and wider) and even worse does not have a clue what genuine voluntary community involvement is about yet has it within their gift to resolve this issue. This is not a local neighbourhood issue. We have even had a Director refuse to meet us to discuss the toilets. The Mayor did come and pledged his full support – but no funding! The local neighbourhood teams work well – it is the next step up the ‘food chain’ where the problem appears to be.
Why should FOSP members invest their time and attract external investment (not available to the council) in to the park when key central elements of the council don’t care? In the last two years our group has attracted investment in excess of £30k in the park and we are currently in the latter stages of securing a £20k investment for 2009. The one thing we cannot do is get external revenue funding for the toilets because they are the responsibility of the council.
Apart from the playground and the football pitches, the toilets are the last council run facility in the park. I would not like to see this key facility disappear along with the golf course, the putting green, the boats on the lake, the childrens boating lake, the steam train, the football changing rooms, the cricket pitch………………………….”
Don Crabtree
A Friend of Sandall Park
www.sandallpark.org.uk
