Arsonists have caused £35,000 worth of damage to play equipment at Ystrad Mynach Park.
Emergency services were called at around 9.45pm last night, Thursday, June 29, and police have launched an investigation.
The fire is being treated as deliberate and has caused extensive damage to a climbing frame and other play facilities in the park.
The damage has been valued at approximately £35,000 and police are actively seeking who is responsible.
A spokesman for CCBC said: “This mindless act of vandalism has destroyed a much-loved play facility in one of our most popular playgrounds.
“We would appeal to residents to be vigilant and keep a close eye on all our community facilities and report any suspicious behaviour to the police.”
Anyone with information can call 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting log number 557 20/06/17.
Bloody disgusting! Where are the police? Where are the CPOs? Where are those council wardens? All this money being spent on keeping our streets safe and they are no where in sight. Kids nowdays have no respect for nothing. They dont deserve to have things. Its the little children i feel sorry for who will be upset when they cant use the park. We spend so much of tax payers money on policing yet we never see them. I hope they catch who ever done it and they are made to pay with a harsh prison sentance.
I think harsh deterrents are limited to motoring offences these days. It’ll be a slap across the wrist at most or some pointless fine which will be paid at 5p a week or not at all. It’s more likely that the perpetrators will sue the council for falling over a trip hazard as they fled the scene.
I agree Chris the motorist is an easy target, and they keep putting the fines up, while the penalty for vandilism and theft goes down,
This is absolutely disgraceful – mindless damage.
They are absolute morons depriving our kids of this facility.
The park is directly opposite ystrad mynach police station !
There should be public outrage – gangs of youths can regularly be seen drinking in the kids playground most nights (particularly weekends ) all this can be seen from the main road.
This has been going on for a number of years – but no one seems to do anything about it.
Why aren’t we seeing anyone patrolling this park ?
Why are we paying council tax ? – we certainly don’t get value for money !
The police and the council need to get their act together !
If this can happen directly opposite a police station,how can they convince us other parts of the borough is safe ?
It’s the same in Morrisons car park at Bargoed and Blackwood bus station – gangs of yobs and no one doing anything about it.
We are being conned – both by the police and the council,we are paying for their service but not getting a service.
Knowing that the police station is opposite makes it worst surely they can be bothered to walk that short distance to carry out their checks
A stupid act of vandalism, as any sane person would agree, but I started thinking about the materials are used these days.
When I was a child my local park was the Aneurin Park in Penyrheol. There was a large slide, made of steel and brass. There were swings, all tubular steel, chains with wooden seats. There was a steel pipe to crawl through which was set in concrete that would not have shamed the Maginot Line. A steel seesaw, mounted on concrete. My favourite was a real steam roller, also entrapped in concrete front and back, which was all steel and cast iron.
In fact the only items that could have been set alight by idiots were the seats on the swings and the roundabout which had wooden decks. I think the council should give careful thought to the play equipment they replace and the materials used. In the 1960’s an attack by arsonists on my park would not have cost £thousands – in fact there would have been very little they could have damaged at all..
Yes, many of the Boroughs parks play equipment were built the same and lasted for many years.
However, in todays world of “blame & claim” culture if the council were to return to more durable and traditional materials that could not be set on fire and a child suffered a bump / injury then the parents would probably be quick to claim compensation ( resulting in even more money being paid out ).
As these parks are clearly not being patrolled by any of the authorities the only reasonable solution seems to be to lock up our parks in the evening ( like the did when I was a lad ) – but I know from one of our previous conversations online, that when you tried this at Morgan Jones park,Caerphilly and that was not so easy to do as I believe beauracracy made this difficult to do.
With regard to locking the parks the ‘powers that be’ indeed do make it extremely difficult. I was willing to do a work share locking the Morgan Jones park, free of charge. This was not possible as everyone involved would need to be trained, according to the council.
As a manager and former engineer I was responsible for ensuring that circuit breakers, machine access points, electrical earth connections, high pressure steam valves, and a host of other items were in the correct position and locked in order that people could do their job safely under a permit to work system. The council, though, thought it wise that I not be entrusted to lock a park gate. At which point I gave up.
Yes its uttterly ridiculous that the council used training as an excuse for not allowing you to lock the park gates.
Then in that case the council should be patrolling their parks and dealing with the troublemakers
Not just kids, where are the parents? They pass their problems on and do not take any responsibilities at all! These yobs and their families will blame everyone for everything.
Until the authorities start to make parents accept responsibility for their childrens actions, nothing is likely to change anytime soon.
How about getting parents of these wayward yobs attend parenting skills classes on a saturday ?( A bit like they do when they get football hooligans to report to police stations ) then these parents would be inconvenienced and might then realise the inconvenience and expense their “little darlings” have caused the community.
the police station is opposite for godsake surely there is cctv
I dont believe there is cctv there
People have been reporting their behaviour to the police…
Thats even worse then – if people are reporting these issues and nothing is being done about it.