Victory for the little guys

Springfield Properties started work on some new houses off Vesuvius Drive last November, as part of its Silver Birch Park development.

During construction the developer took over a large area of open space where children used to play football to store building materials.

After this was completed in the spring, workers set about creating a play park which was laid out in the original planning permission for the estate.

This work appeared to be done several weeks ago, but the equipment remained locked behind metal fencing with the children unable to get to use it.

On Monday (September 25) a group of eight youngsters, led by sisters Millie and Lexie Laird, decided they’d had enough and staged a protest at the site.

Debi Wilson, mum of one of the protestors Dennon Wilson, said: “The play park appeared to have been finished weeks ago, yet the fences remained. We had tried phoning and emailing Springfield to get some action, but to no avail. For the best part of a year the kids have had nowhere to play and were getting really fed up so decided it was time for them to take a stand and hold a protest at the site.”

After the Motherwell Times contacted Springfield Properties about the children’s protest workers were sent to take down the fencing and it will be open from today (Wednesday).

A spokesperson for Springfield Properties said: “We are pleased that our Silver Birch development is a popular place to live in Motherwell. Appealing to families is the park which combines state-of-the-art play equipment and a grassy area.

“We are pleased to confirm that it is now open and we’re sorry the children have had to wait.

“We hope families will enjoy it for many generations to come.”

Debi added: “Clearly everyone is delighted that the fencing has finally been taken down.

“It looked like being a really good play park from the other side of the fence so we’re delighted the kids can finally try it out.”