On Saturday the 29th April many volunteers turned up to help the Friends of the Freshney tidy up the Duke of York Gardens, we painted railings, planted over 50 shrubs and redesigned the rockery area. It was hard work but very satisfying and rewarding, many thanks go to all the groups and individuals who helped out including members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the St Hughs Scout Group, the Kandoo Kids, Park Pride and Neat Streets wardens as well as a group of Community Payback workers.

Many people turned up and helped out with the various activities. It was a great day and everyone enjoyed themselves. The day kicked off at 10.00am and we were finished by 3.00pm, I was there until 4.00pm tidying up and putting all the tools away. The park looked fantastic, I took some great before and after photos to show how much better the park looked. The newly revamped rockery is being dedicated to Mrs Pamela Ballantyne for her time spent trying to help improve the park, Mrs Ballantyne has also donated £200 to the Friends and her passion and commitment are an inspiration to others.

By the time I had returned home, cleaned up and changed clothes I decided to take my wife and son onto the park to show them how great it looked and I was shocked and upset to see that most of the plants had been uprooted and litter, mainly beer cans, packaging and empty alcohol bottles was strewn all over the place.

I decided to return once I had something to eat and I was accompanied by my 14 year old son. When we arrived on the park Councillor Peter Barker was already there replanting on his own. My son and I soon got stuck in and replanted all of the shrubs we were joined by some local children who had helped us earlier in the day, they were upset to see the damage too!

Once all the replanting had been done I decided to photograph the mess left behind and I was confronted by some drunken youths who hurled abuse and made violent threats which really upset my son and shook me!

On Friday night gangs of youths were drinking and taking drugs into the early hours of Saturday morning, despite calls made to the police, no one moved them on, they were there until 7.00am on Saturday morning! The mess left behind was horrendous and included home made “bongs” and syringes.

It’s not surprising that people are scared to use the park when these feral kids think they can do what they like when they like and are not challenged by anyone in authority.

The burning questions are: why is this kind of behaviour allowed to continue? Why do decent honest law abiding citizens have to live their lives in fear of retribution and not dare venture out in the evening, many people are living a self imposed curfew.

As council tax payers and members of the public we shouldn’t have to put up with this kind of behaviour and I would like to know exactly what is being done to tackle the problems we are increasingly facing.