At the weekend, my lovely wife, Jude, left us to fend for ourselves while she went down to London to see The Levellers. I think I managed to get through the whole weekend without too many disasters. Certainly nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a dab of super-glue or a glass of pink milk.

On Sunday we walked over to the playground at the end of Mawdsley Terrace. The children absolutely love it. In particular running up and down the half-pipes.

The only problem with the playground is the broken glass and litter that tends to cover it during the weekend. The council does come and clean the playground from time to time, but it quickly returns to a mess. And, unlike Halsall Lane playground, the bins haven’t been burned out (to my knowledge), and the equipment is occasionally maintained.

There has also been a side-panel missing from the big half-pipe which provides a great place to hide and get up to mischief well away from the CCTV cameras.

When I went to take a photograph of the missing panel I was surrounded by children asking what I was doing. They took great delight in telling me that the older children “smoke weed” and “drink beer” under the half-pipe – which they may well do. They probably wanted to get a reaction from me. That stuff is bound to go on if there is somewhere to hide away. To be honest, I just want to get it repaired.

They proceeded to show me their various bumps and bruises that they had collected while using the equipment. My reaction was that it’s a skateboard park – if you don’t get bruises, then you’re not using it properly. But, then they took me around the equipment and pointed out the bolts that weren’t properly screwed in, sections on different levels and a typically poor level of maintenance.

I look at this stuff as a 40 year old who never knew one end of a skateboard from another, and to me it all looks ok, but the kids are the ones who use it, and they know exactly what’s wrong with it. Shame none of them have a vote!