A woman who helped build a playground in honour of her late husband has been forced to close it because of vandals.
Rathmullan playground has been closed on health and safety grounds. Pic courtesy of www.rathmullan.net
Mally Standford donated €40,000 to help build the beautiful play area used by thousands of children each year close to Rathmullan Beach.
Mally, who lives at the nearby Coastguard Station, donated the nest egg to help build the state-of-the-art playground which opened in 2007.
But now Mally and other volunteers have been forced to lock the facility on health and safety grounds because of damage to the area.
Two of the play items have been left broken and damage has also been caused to a fence.
Mally is now appealing to the local community to help safeguard the play area as she and other volunteers work to get it reopened.
“We had to close it on health and safety grounds because of the vandalism which was caused to it.
“We don’t want children hurting themselves and to have it on our conscience.
“The county council have been wonderful and we’re hoping to have it open again shortly.
“But it simply cannot open in its present condition and we would appeal to the local community to protect what is their play area,” she said.
Originally a play area costing €80,000 was to be located at Rathmullan until Mally helped upgrade it to a ‘Rolls Royce’ facility with a donation of €40,000.
Mally’s donation came after the death of her husband Bob in a car crash.
She praised the council for their help and upkeep of the facility but stressed that it was now up to the local community to lay a more active part.
“This is a wonderful facility and we should all be very proud of what we have.
“When I see young children running from their cars with their families to get into the playground, I just get such a joy.
“But we have to ensure that it is respected and that older teenagers who have been entering it when it is closed think of the harm they are doing,” she said.