A walk in Joan Hunter Park in Croydon is not such a ‘walk in the park’ anymore when looking at its current state.
According to concerned resident Raymond Pieters, the last form of maintenance seen at the park was three months ago.
“Since then nothing has been done at the park,” said Pieters.
“This is sad because Joan Hunter Park is the pride of Croydon, a place where we need to bring our children to play and walk our dogs, have family picnics and more but we can’t do that anymore because it is not well maintained.”
Pieters said although the grass at the park would get cut, the other maintenance was not up-to-date.
“The grass used to get cut now and then but we were still faced with the litter problem, broken dustbins and benches and vagrants at the park,” explained Pieters.
“We can’t have such a big and beautiful park go to waste because of the lack of maintenance, something needs to be done about this.”
Pieters said he has lodged several complaints with the metro but none have yielded positive results as the park remains in a bad condition.
Express took a tour of the park and found that indeed the grass hadn’t been cut for a long time as it had grown to hip level and up to shoulder level in other parts of the park.
There are rusted and broken swings a few metres from the Mahogany Road entrance. As you follow the overgrown pathway you see the broken dustbins with graffiti on some.
Bricks are falling off at other parts of the pathway and another unsafe factor is the unstable mini-bridges over the dried-up stream.
The trees don’t seem to have received a good prune in months. Although there are signs at the park that clearly state alcohol is one of the things prohibited at the park, a lot of alcohol bottles are lying around.
“There is a bench next a big tree and we often see people gathering there drinking,” said Pieters.
“Although there is a dustbin right next to the tree, they still leave rubbish on the floor. I always find the most rubbish at this spot every week when I take my dog for a walk. That is just one of the things that make this park unpleasant.”
Ward councillor Simon Lapping said he has also tried several times to get the park sorted out.
“I have tried numerous times to get the park sorted out but nothing has been done about it,” said Lapping.
“In my view, the Kempton Park parks depot has collapsed because it is not only this park, it is all parks. Like in Rhodesfield, it is a shocking state of affairs and there seems to be no urgency anymore. I went to Joan Hunter Park over the weekend and the grass is two feet high, which is unacceptable.
“Now I have sent it to the city manager and she must sort it out because I am tired of talking and begging and nothing gets done.
“The parks department had a robbery last year and a lot of their grass cutting equipment and other things were stolen. They also had a strike recently which I think has impacted on everything.”
Express hadn’t received comment from the metro at the time of going to print.
