Revamp at game area where bricks 'used as missiles'

A games area which has become so damaged that loose bricks were being used as "missiles" by the young people it was designed to benefit, is set to be refurbished.

The playground on the corner of Burholme Road and Woodacre Road in Ribbleton, Preston, will get a £100,000 upgrade after Preston City Council bought it from Lancashire County Council for just £1.

A meeting of the city authority heard the site near Moor Nook Youth Community Centre had become a target for antisocial behaviour so severe, those living nearby had been left terrified.

Ribbleton Councillor Freddie Bailey said youngsters have been using broken bricks as missiles and hoped work could begin on the playground "very quickly".

Councillor Jonathan Saksena said the area has been in a "terrible state for a long time [and] has been absolutely attacked by gangs".

He said some residents "are getting really afraid of what's happening around it".

Preston City Council's cabinet agreed to acquire the games area, which members were told had been maintained by the county council to "a safe standard" but had now reached the end of its lifespan.

At a meeting of Preston's full council, Bailey said: "A lot of the young people have been destroying it little by little, and they're using a lot of the broken bricks as missiles."

He said the county council "didn't really want anything to do with it" and had suggested as much as £500,000 would have been required for renovation, which was when the city authority decided to "step in".

Ribbleton was described in a city council cabinet report as being an area with "very few facilities for teens", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A contractor has already been appointed for the job, with £76,000 set to be invested in the games facilities themselves.

Another £24,000 will go toward the installation of four new lighting columns, with the cash coming from a pot earmarked for improvements to parks and play spaces.

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