'Soul destroying!' Play park in Sandwell hit by vandals with missing swings, broken glass and paint poured down slide

The park, which is located on the Millfields estate in West Bromwich, was popular with residents when it was first built around 10 years ago.

But it has now been described as a "ghost park", with many pieces of equipment missing and damaged including a zip wire, swings and parts to a sculpture that was specially commissioned for the opening of the park, reportedly costing £10,000.

The park was reportedly built with the help of the environmental organisation, Groundwork, who approached residents and asked them to be involved.

Dawn Bennett, whose house backs onto the park, was secretary to the project, and said she first noticed the park had gone "down hill" during the Covid lockdowns.

Dawn, who has been living on the estate for around 16 years, said: "It's quite upsetting to me personally because going back those nine or 10 years ago, a lot of work and money went into creating it.

"The slides have just been vandalised with paint, the park is like a ghost park. I went over because we had some sun on the weekend and there was parents coming over with their toddlers but they couldn't even take the children on the slide because of the paint.

"I noticed when the lockdowns began it started going really down hill, if anything was breaking on there nothing was fixed. It's a place now for teenagers to come and wreck it really.

"I've gone on there and there's been glass smashed all on the little round-a-bout, there's dog mess, the grass isn't being kept anymore (but) they used to do the grass regularly – it was just a really really beautiful park.

"It's devastating really – if you could have seen into the future what it would be like, it was all done for nothing."

A spokesperson for Sandwell Council, said: "We have already arranged a site visit to undertake an inspection and to immediately resolve any issues.

"We had also already developed plans to refurbish the current equipment at the park."

The Express & Star has approached West Midlands Police for comment.