Wansteadium

Good News: Redbridge Council is in the process of replacing the rope seat on the new playground swing in Christchurch Green.

Bad News: The rope *was* cut in two by vandals, less than 24 hours after the swing was installed on Friday. It was this that caused the spiked brackets to be revealed after they worked themselves loose. No parents complained to the council about the swing until Sunday, the council told Wansteadium, “may be because people using the equipment didn’t realise the rope was not meant to be in two pieces”. As our video, taken on Saturday morning, shows, the swing of two parts – though not the original design – made for a perfectly enjoyable playground toy that children were lining up to have a go on, perhaps in part because the frayed rope looked like a horse’s mane.

The council told us:

“The equipment is designed to comply with current British Safety Standards and as the rope is 10 inches thick, it wouldn’t have been easy to cut. It is also tested during the design phase to ensure that it is robust and suitable for purpose. The manufacturers have been contacted and we are in the process of replacing the rope.”

So this leaves these questions dangling:

• How long would it take to cut through a 10-inch rope, and with how big a knife?
• Is this not just a case of criminal damage but also of knife crime?
• Did no one see anything on Friday night, and do any of the Wanstead CCTV cameras actually cover the playground? Is this considered a significant enough anti-social event to warrant investigation?
• Will the manufacturers be changing the kind of rope used for the replacement?

Turns out Wanstead folk were rather keen on the idea of giving away stuff they didn’t want and, on the other hand, picking second hand stuff up for free. Alice Cunningham, co-ordinator of the Give and Take event on Saturday (www.giveortake.org.uk) told Wansteadium that 380 people came through the doors, and they reckon five tonnes of reusable goods which would otherwise have ended up in landfill are now being used by someone else. “That is one of our busiest events on record, if not the busiest, so pretty successful by our reckoning.”
There’s another event this weekend at Baker’s Avenue, E17 – details here and here.

Life’s got much more interesting for Wanstead toddlers with the unveiling of a grand rope-seated swing. It’s a bit like a massive playground executive toy, and means that generations of Wanstead children now will grow up knowing all about conservation of energy.

Teething problems aside (by noon on Saturday one of the seats had come detached from the chains) this should be great fun.

Saturday’s Give or Take event at the United Reformed Church on Nightingale Lane sounds deceptively simple – you can take stuff along that you don’t want (provided it’s in decent condition) and hopefully someone else will want it. Similarly, if you see something you want, you can take it away. No money changes hands, and hopefully loads of things don’t end up at the tip.  More details below (click the image to enlarge it).