New Roscommon playground ‘a massive disappointment’ for special needs children

The new playground at Loughnaneane Park in Roscommon Town is “a massive disappointment” for children with special needs, according to one campaigner.

Denise Pullum, co-director of Áirc Midlands, a voluntary run group set up to support children with disabilities, has raised concerns about the newly upgraded playground not being sufficiently inclusive.

“When they were redesigning the playground, they had lots and lots of inclusive equipment they could have purchased to go in there and they didn’t. There are wheelchair swings, there are special roundabouts, there are all kinds of things that they could have put in there that would have been inclusive but they didn’t.

“Our concern is that when they put in the new playground, they took all the inclusive stuff out. The old playground used to have a full support swing with a harness and there were proper solid steps going up to the slides.

“Now there is an open ladder and climbing wall to get up to the slides. All of these things are important for our children. I think the new playground for abled children is much, much better because it is all new and it’s got new equipment in it, and it’s lovely. But they should have just thought of our children and added more,” she said.

Ms Pullum said that the previous playground was fairly limited but it was usable.

“It had stuff there that our kids could use. It had a caterpillar that they could crawl through, so a child that wasn’t walking could move through it, that would be fine for them. There were various things you could twist and could talk into. A little house they could get in.

“It’s a lost opportunity. They could have made a playground that stood out in County Roscommon above all others. For us as a special needs community, the playground is a massive disappointment,” she said. She noted that a carousel had been included, but added: “You can put a wheelchair on the carousel but once you start spinning, you can’t keep the chair on it. It needs a harness to keep the wheelchair on.”

Ms Pullum has two children with special needs. Toby (13) is a child with Down Syndrome and her daughter Lacey (12) has ADHD. Inclusive playgrounds play an important role in their lives.

“I am very disappointed by this because come the summer, for many children, my children included, playgrounds are really all we have. We can’t use indoor play centres because they are too noisy. Often we can’t go on days out because we have children who need some kind of care throughout the day. They can only go on short trips so playgrounds to us are a godsend.

“Lacey needs the freedom of the playground, that is really important to her. Although she is able to use everything in the playground, it’s no good if her brother can’t use everything and then we can’t go,” she said.

Ms Pullum is also disappointed at what she feels has been a lack of consultation with key stakeholders – parents - when it came to developing the new playground.

“They have tried to make it accessible and inclusive. They haven’t asked the right people. They should have come to the parents. There are lots of parents on lots of forums, there are a lots of communities they could have contacted just to ask us what we thought would be good inclusivity and they didn’t do it.” She said her concerns about the new playground were shared by many other parents.

“I have had many people contact me who said they have been there and they won’t go there again,” she said.

The issue was also highlighted at a recent event for local election candidates organised by Roscommon Women’s Network and Roscommon County Council.