Parents and children say their favourite playground has been “forgotten” by the council after equipment was removed four years ago.

Families in Brighton are calling on the council to renovate the park at Mile Oak Recreation Ground and presented a petition to Brighton and Hove City Council for yesterday’s full council meeting.

A petition of nearly 1,400 signatures asks councillors to “transform” the park in Chalky Road, Portslade, back into a “community hub” and make it a “well-loved place” once again.

Natalie Downs, from Hamilton Close, uses the park with her children Chloe, 12, Katie, nine, and Thomas, three, and she called on the council to “take responsibility” for the park.

Before the meeting the 37-year-old said: “When they changed it they took the seesaw out and all the climbing frames with monkey bars. Now we just have two swings that have been there since the 1970s, a little slide for toddlers and a sandpit which is sinking.

“Our park was done as a trial and they spent £50,000 doing it up but most of that money went on to removing equipment and landscaping it for what they called adventure play.

“Other parks have had less money spent on them but ours has had big earth mounds built.

“When it opened we had no grass on the floor, no surrounding fence and a big silver tunnel which had to be removed since kids were cutting themselves on it.”

Tiffany Soanes, 40, from Graham Avenue, whose children Drew, four, and Evelyn, eight, use the park, said it feels like they have been “forgotten”.

She said: “We want to make it a well-loved place again. It is in need of updating and it was well-loved, well- used.

“It is used by a fraction of those people now. It is boring. We are trying to transform it back into a community hub.”

The parents of Mile Oak have been working with the local Labour Party on the campaign.

Peter Kyle, Labour parliamentary candidate for Hove, said: “It’s been a privilege to see the group in action and help point them in the right direction so they can achieve their goal of a decent set of play equipment – not just for themselves but for generations to come in Mile Oak.”

A recommendation was passed at full council to put the petition before the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee.