By Andy Balfour
Copyright derryjournal
At September’s meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Environment and Regeneration Committee meeting, Alderman Middleton said she had received “increased communication” from constituents around the park. She asked officers about potential plans for the currently derelict adventure play park, and for any upgrade plans to the existing play park. She added: “There have been many concerns raised about recent anti-social behaviour, with some equipment being damaged, albeit since then repaired. What, if any, measures are in place to mitigate this?” Director of Environment and Regeneration, Karen Phillips, said a scoping exercise to replace the adventure play park had been completed, but has “not yet been prioritised for funding”, while the there have been “on and off” repairs to the play park. Ms Phillips said: “I do know that the park’s wardens work with other stakeholders, such as PSNI, and St Columb’s Parkhouse, to try and deal with that.” Natural Environment Regeneration Officer, Colin Kennedy, noted that anti-social behaviour at parks is more common during the summer, but has reduced in recent years. He concluded: “Sometimes there can be spikes but our park rangers are very active, they have a presence in the New Gate Lodge, in terms of working with the young people. “But they also have the backup of the community and, only if needs be, the PSNI.” Recently released figures show that anti-social behaviour incidents overall in Derry and Strabane have decreased year-on-year. Figures from the PSNI show there were 3,512 incidents locally in the year August 2024 to July 2025. This was down by 101 from 3,613 in the year August 2023 to July 2024 – a 2.8 per cent decrease. Across the North an increase in ASB incidents was reported over the year. There were 44,821 ASB incidents in the North, an increase of 925 (2.1 per cent) when compared with the previous 12 months. Despite the increase, this remains one of the lowest 12 month figures since 2006/07. The PSNI say ASB has been trending downwards generally over the past 20 years although a spike was reported during the COVID-19 pandemic.
