A decision will be made this week on what to do after a $2 million “upgrade” created “Melbourne’s saddest playground”.
The facility, located in Collingwood, used to be your typical child-friendly playground with a set of swings, a slide and easily accessible climbing equipment.
But after Yarra Council invested a staggering sum into “improving” it, both aesthetically and practically, local parents have been up in arms over the end result.
READ MORE: Tracy Grimshaw returns to Today
This used to be Brielle Pope’s local playground to take her kids, but now her young daughter can’t even reach the new bars they’ve put in and instead of a balance beam, she’s left to run along a high wall instead.
“They’ve got to find their own entertainment now – there’s just a lot of hazards and there needs to be a more traditional area for play equipment where they can really challenge their development and growth and connect with other kids in the community,” Brielle told Today.
For the past six months, Brielle and other parents in the community have been pushing for council to change the playground and add more user-friendly equipment for their kids to play with.
She said the whole process has taken a lot longer than she ever imagined, but finally, this week Yarra City Council will meet to vote on what, if anything, they are willing to do to meet those pleas.
READ MORE: Today presenter slams ‘unwanted attention’ on AFL kiss
“Hopefully we’ll get a much better result, anything is better than the prison yard vibes we have now,” she said.
“I just had no idea how political it would be to try and fight for the bare necessities of what a council should deliver, council’s purpose is to provide good governance and well-being for their community, you know, and instead it seems like they’re just doing the bare minimum.”
Hear what else Brielle had to say in the video above