Vandals ‘causing mayhem’ at children’s playground in Letterkenny

The children’s playground in Glendale Drive, Letterkenny, has been subjected to vandalism resulting in damage to its surface, a local councillor claims.

Concerns from residents over recent incidents prompted Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh to take a motion to the Letterkenny-Milford MD meeting, asking “that the Council put in place a plan for managing the play area in Glendale Drive estate which has been subjected to vandalism on a number of occasions.”

Although the motion was seconded by Cllr Gerry McMonagle, they were informed that no complaints of vandalism have been reported from weekly inspections of the play area.

“Glendale Drive is a Council owned/ maintained playground on lands now owned by the Council,” said James Kelly, Executive Engineer, Community Development. “The playground had its annual inspection in January 2025. The inspection revealed that some works were necessary on the wet pour safety surfacing and some fixtures and fittings to equipment needed to be tightened. 

“A weekly inspection of the playground, similar to all other Council playgrounds across the county, takes place and the Community Development Division of the Council is not aware of any complaints or vandalism being reported. In fact, there would seldom be complaints received about this playground.

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“If there are recent reports of damage to play equipment causing safety issues within the playground, the Community Development Division will be happy to address these as part of its playground maintenance, however there is no management plan in place or proposed for the playground in Glendale Drive.”

Cllr Kavanagh said: “This is a lovely play area but on a number of occasions the surface has been thrown up. The same kids are coming into the estate destroying this good facility.

“There is a hole in the surface and someone could get injured. We need a way of monitoring the playground.”

Cllr McMonagle said: “I’m surprised at the answer that no damage has been done. There’s a number of young people causing mayhem, and a few estates that have parks have CCTV.

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“There needs to be more investigation and we need to consider CCTV to identify the culprits.”