Big kids are ruining play

PLAY parks designed for young children are being taken over by older youths.

A new survey has found gangs of teenagers are intimidating youngsters and making them feel unwelcome in parks and recreation grounds.

Government education watchdog Ofsted surveyed five-to 13 year-olds in inner city areas and found they often felt forced out of playgrounds by "the big kids".

And Swindon people feel the problem could be even greater in smaller towns, where there are fewer places for teenagers to go.

The Advertiser visited two parks in the Swindon area and found the "big kid" phenomenon alive and kicking.

At the New Road play area in Wootton Bassett, which was vandalised by youths in February, 10-year-old Michael Jones said he felt scared by big groups of teenagers.

"There is a group of 20 people and I'm anxious when they are on the swings," said Michael, of Lyneham.

"Me and my friends don't want to play in the park when they do we just leave.

"Once we were in the bushes picking up sticks and they came over and said 'what the hell are you doing' and chased us off.

"All of my friends are scared of them."

Michael's mum, Diane, said: "He goes to the park on his own, but only the other day he came back because an older child had upset him."

Twelve-year-old Kerry Reynolds, also from Lyneham, said older children often took control of the swings in the early evenings.

"They just smoke and stare at us. They make us scared," she said.

"Sometimes we'll be talking and playing and they start smoking and we just walk away because my friend gets bullied."

Kerry has six brothers and sisters. Their mum, Justine, said: "I'm quite happy for the older ones to go to the park on their own or in pairs. But I have strict guidelines about them being back at a certain time.

"I am worried about older children, they seem to hang around in big groups and can be quite intimidating."

At Old Town Recreation Ground, nine-year-old Lauren Hunt, of Rodbourne Cheney, accused the youths of a catalogue of abuse against playground equipment.

"They usually push the swings over the bars so no-one can sit on them," she said.

"They make the slide wet by pouring sticky drinks down it, and put chewing gum on the swings.

"And they wedge things underneath the roundabout so it can't move round.

"I want the park to be just for young people."

Her friend, 13-year-old Kelly Mapstone of Penhill, said: "The older boys set light to everything and ride around on motorbikes.

"They should just leave us alone."

But "big kid" Katrina Mason, 16, hit back at claims her generation was responsible for intimidating the little ones.

Katrina, of Highworth, said she and her friends hung out in parks because there was little else to do.

"We don't make the younger kids leave they leave when we get there," she said.

"We don't usually say anything, we just do our own thing.

Katrina, who has just finished at Highworth Warneford School, said if there were better facilities for people her age then her group, numbering up to 12, would not feel the need to go to parks all the time.

"Give us somewhere else to go and we'll go there," she said.

"There's not enough to do. We just want somewhere we can go without being told off or told to move on."

The teenager said the situation was a case of history repeating itself when she was younger she too had been intimidated by older children.

"When I was little we used to leave when they came. It was exactly the same," she said.

Even adults admitted the presence of large gangs of teenagers could make them feel uncomfortable.

Iole Pieri, Katrina's mum, said: "If a gang of 16-year-olds came to the park and I was with my kids I would leave.

"I would feel intimidated by some of them, they're so big."

Although the Ofsted study focused on inner city areas, Swindonians suggested the "big kid" problem was as bad or even worse in a town like Swindon.

Diane Jones, 36, said: "Swindon's just the same as the big cities. There's always going to be dangers and drugs wherever you are."

And Katrina said: "In big cities like London and Birmingham there is more stuff to do, so there is probably less of a problem.

"But in Highworth there is nothing to do, unless you have money, so you just end up hanging around."

Some parents told the Advertiser they would like to see more supervision of parks mainly to keep the older children away from the younger ones.

But Mrs Pieri, a part-time hairdresser, said it was unfair to heap all the blame on bored teenagers.

"It's better they're in the parks than the pubs," she said. "There just needs to be more stuff for the older ones to do."