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£100k Southwick playground wrecked after four months

8:13am Thursday 19th March 2009


A new playground which cost nearly £100,000 to build was torched by vandals.

The adventure playground at Southwick recreation ground, off Old Barn Way in Fishersgate, was set alight in an arson at about midnight on Wednesday.

Firefighters were called and said the rubber safety flooring and a climbing frame had been badly damaged in the blaze.

The playground opened in November after Adur District Council invited members of the public to help them design it.

The council paid £61,000 and the remaining £35,000 was donated by waste company Viridor.

Fire investigators and police were called to find out what was used to start the blaze this morning.

Park regular Jim Andrews, 60, walks his dog and takes his granddaughter to the playground.

He said: "It is disgusting. "All the kids got involved in working on it. "It is absolutely disgraceful. Everybody is outraged. "There is hardly anything left of it."


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Jim BB, Brighton says...
8:18am Thu 19 Mar 09

What's wrong with people? Hope they get caught and made to rebuild it.

My security word is pain-cell - now, that's an idea!

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Osama bin there, Brighton says...
9:10am Thu 19 Mar 09

This country is finished.
I live in France some of the year and something like that would just never happen over there.
Yet our papers are full of such stories.
Probably time to move to a far more civilised society full time.

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Paul Skinnbach, bn2 says...
9:19am Thu 19 Mar 09

It's probably that group of future dole queue goers, the "Southwick Soldierz" I think they call themselves.

the lot of them are literally 2 braincells shy of being plankton.

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Brap Brap, Innit... says...
9:21am Thu 19 Mar 09

Didn't see that coming...

Seriously, you can't build something like that in an area like that. This will always be the end result until we stop feeding the chavs.

The police know who these oiks are. So lets get their information and cut off their parents benefits.

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Osama bin there, Brighton says...
9:58am Thu 19 Mar 09

Paul Skinnbach wrote:
It's probably that group of future dole queue goers, the "Southwick Soldierz" I think they call themselves.

the lot of them are literally 2 braincells shy of being plankton.
I think you are being unfair to plankton...

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andygunner, brighton says...
10:09am Thu 19 Mar 09

i live very nearby - im so disappointed. The area is not scum like posts suggest. Its not a leafy suburb by any means but this is a new low.

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VoiceofUnreason, Uckfield says...
10:32am Thu 19 Mar 09

I recall the Southwick area described as a tranquil place with a village feel.Something awful must have changed to allow such scum cause such mindless turmoil.Obviously the parent (single) of each of these chavs was very concerned regarding their whereabouts,STERILIS
E THE BLEEDIN' LOT.

Security word Leggings Nike Caps

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Human Machine, Portslade says...
10:55am Thu 19 Mar 09

Fishersgate? Not surprised. At my nephew's school it's always Fishersgate scum causing all the trouble. West Brighton's version of Whitehawk.

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Stash, Southwick says...
11:08am Thu 19 Mar 09

Whitehawk or Fishersgate..that is the question..

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andygunner, brighton says...
11:24am Thu 19 Mar 09

incidentally argus you've made a boo-boo, old barn way is NOT fishersgate, and neither is the playgorund in SOUTHWICK recreation ground.

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Stash, Southwick says...
11:34am Thu 19 Mar 09

Isn't it the one just down from the school in Southwick Rec?

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andygunner, brighton says...
11:40am Thu 19 Mar 09

yes thats the one. It was a really nice playground, the children love it after school. I think we should pull together as a community, defy these yobs and all pitch in to get it up and running again.

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andygunner, brighton says...
11:42am Thu 19 Mar 09

n.b. im sure some good local building firms would be willing to lend a hand in return for a placard with their phone number, maybe the school children could join in in some way. if we tolerate this kinda thing, it just continues and gets worse. its degradation of society that weve accepted for years now, its about time community pride was restored and we all knew our neighbours and worked with each other.

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Lil, Worthing says...
12:28pm Thu 19 Mar 09

I expeck that if joo look for thee cru mahn yill sn find them where they is doin some proparr grafeetee.

Or roughly translated : A bunch of out of control idiots who suddenly think any body cares about a bunch of yobs in a world with 6 million people.

This certainly doesn't get my 'respeckt'

Actually if we find them can we just pop a pirahna or two down their pants to teach them a lesson?

I would call them scum but that does an injustice to well, scum.

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Lil, Worthing says...
12:28pm Thu 19 Mar 09

Or even 6 billion. :) Nil points for moi.

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Pebbles, Brighton says...
2:01pm Thu 19 Mar 09

Perhaps in future some kind of CCTV should be required, and built into the budget.

I hope that if those vandals are caught then they are publicly humiliated.... banned from any such park in the area for life.. and their parents fined and made to pay for damage.

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Paul Skinnbach, bn2 says...
2:13pm Thu 19 Mar 09

The thing is, these f*cking idiots and their parents are the first people to complain that "there's nothing to do for the kids" - I certainly wasn't given access to a youth club with DJ Decks and Boxing equipment like most Brighton Ferals are and I never felt I had to smash anything up out of boredom.

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ShorehamBeachcomber, shoreham says...
7:25pm Thu 19 Mar 09

I would guess that its not wrecked bt in fact only an area below whatever was set on fire and the climbing frame must surely be made of metal?...has anyone seen it??..So potentially a 8ft square piece of rubber and 3 coats of gloss...so, a repair bill then of a Monkey max..

security word Damaged a bit

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Osama bin there, Brighton says...
8:20pm Thu 19 Mar 09

ShorehamBeachcomber wrote:
I would guess that its not wrecked bt in fact only an area below whatever was set on fire and the climbing frame must surely be made of metal?...has anyone seen it??..So potentially a 8ft square piece of rubber and 3 coats of gloss...so, a repair bill then of a Monkey max..

security word Damaged a bit
So you are excusing the feral tw*ts are you?

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pigletstrotters, Brighton says...
11:26pm Thu 19 Mar 09

What a total waste of my Tax,,why do kids have to have a playground ,,cant the parents take them to the park or down the beach ...

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bug eye, hove says...
12:35am Fri 20 Mar 09

trouble is these scuzzers and their parents do not care and unfortunately find their way into brighton and hove on a friday and saturday night. we need border police.

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captbaz, brighton says...
3:18am Fri 20 Mar 09

We now live in a country where morals and family values mean sod all. It's fine to say maybe a building company would like to donate materials and erect a sign but how long would it last before some other idiots came and vandalised it again? Cameras cost money so the children suffer again because they have two less swings to pay for the cameras.
People have to take responsibility. If you bring a child into this world you have to be responsible for it and it's behaviour catch the little sods and make their parents pay for the damage. Make the sod's clear litter and clean the playground everyday for a year and if they don't lock them up. It is all too easy they get a telling off (not even a slap on the wrist these days cause they might sue you) told not to be a naughty boy/girl again and sent home to parents that don't really care. It is about time this country started to fight back again'st yob's before it is too late

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stan bailey, brighton says...
6:42am Fri 20 Mar 09

Paul Skinnbach wrote:
The thing is, these f*cking idiots and their parents are the first people to complain that "there's nothing to do for the kids" - I certainly wasn't given access to a youth club with DJ Decks and Boxing equipment like most Brighton Ferals are and I never felt I had to smash anything up out of boredom.
Spot on. The parents chose to have kids. Why they think take payers should entertain them is beyond me. If they stayed in and read a book, maybe literacy skills wouldn't be so poor

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Athena, says...
8:23am Fri 20 Mar 09

Some of these parents don't choose to have children. What they're after is the Family Allowance. They're too brainless to make the connection between raising a child and how much it will cost them. And their children do the same. So there's more, and more, and more of them.

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Guerrero, Alicante says...
10:51pm Fri 20 Mar 09

captbaz wrote:
We now live in a country where morals and family values mean sod all. It's fine to say maybe a building company would like to donate materials and erect a sign but how long would it last before some other idiots came and vandalised it again? Cameras cost money so the children suffer again because they have two less swings to pay for the cameras. People have to take responsibility. If you bring a child into this world you have to be responsible for it and it's behaviour catch the little sods and make their parents pay for the damage. Make the sod's clear litter and clean the playground everyday for a year and if they don't lock them up. It is all too easy they get a telling off (not even a slap on the wrist these days cause they might sue you) told not to be a naughty boy/girl again and sent home to parents that don't really care. It is about time this country started to fight back again'st yob's before it is too late
It's already too late.
I was no angel as a kid,but this new generation are seriously deranged.They have never been told NO to anything so they just do as they please.
I,and my young family, jumped the ship that is the HMS Britain, six years ago.
Unless you are very,very wealthy or benefit scroungers it's best you do the same.
Britain is dying a slow and painful death.

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