I was sad, frustrated and angry to hear about the vandalism that has taken place at the new play area in Abbey Meadow.

I’ve been following the threads closely on the Abingdon Facebook group and been contacted separately by several parents.

It took a long and big campaign by local residents, backed by Lib Dem councillors, to press the Vale of White Horse council to invest properly in the facilities at Abbey Meadow.

The new play area has been well-used since the day it opened and has been a real boon for local families. A place to congregate, get some fresh air and let the kids run riot in a what should be a safe environment.

Locals are still campaigning for better toilet facilities to serve Abbey Meadow too.

What on earth possessed anyone to think it is a clever idea to deliberately damage the equipment?

Not only does the damage mean that small children have had their play disrupted, it has already cost a substantial amount of time and money to fix and will no doubt increase the ongoing cost of running the park.

And that means there will now be less money to spend on other facilities or services in Abingdon.

I am pleased that the Vale acted quickly to deal with the problem on each occasion, but it I am very unhappy that they needed to.

Moving forward the authorities clearly now need to look at how they can prevent similar damage in the future, and the simplest way to solve the problem is for the vandals to stop.

I’d encourage anyone who knows the identity of anyone involved to pass that information on to the police. If you are a parent or relative of anyone involved please do everything you can to talk to them about it and help ensure it doesn’t happen again.

In the meantime I have been in touch with the council and police, asking them to do what they can to help prevent further problems.

I’ve asked the police to increase the regularity of their presence in Abbey Meadow.

I’ve further asked the Vale if there is anything they can do to make the play area more secure outside the times young children use it.

Police and Vale should work together to see if extending CCTV coverage to Abbey Meadow might be a better long-term approach. This could also deter any similar problems once the refurbished pool reopens.

Unfortunately each of these approaches involves the diversion of resources from elsewhere, and it’s a great shame that has to happen at all. However, as your local MP, I feel it’s my duty to ensure all authorities are doing everything they can.