A two-year revamp costing £4m... and officials came up with a play park that doesn't even have a slide - 18th Apr 2011

It had been closed for two years as part of a £4million parkland renovation project.

So when parents and their toddlers turned up for the grand reopening of the under-fives’ playground they were expecting something quite special.

In the event, they were a little disappointed. There was no wide range of the traditional equipment, such as slides and roundabouts that they might have expected.

Instead, there was a two-seater swing, two small sandpits, a stand-on seesaw and equipment moved from the old playground: a toy train, some springy chickens and a springy horse.

The playground at Beacon Park in the cathedral city of Lichfield, Staffordshire, also includes ‘climbing rocks’, which parents say are dangerous for small children. Glass was said to have been found in one of the sandpits. Read More