A real-life Woody Woodpecker destroyed a kids' zipwire at a cost of £18,000 - after setting up home in a playground. The head-banging bird pecked a three inch hole in a wooden strut on the frame of the play equipment leaving it unsafe to use.
The wrecked zipwire has now been dismantled and removed from Sinfin Moor Park and Nature Reserve in Derby. Members of the Friends of Sinfin Moor Park and Nature Reserve Group were shocked to discover the extent of the damage.
Colin Attenborough, 86, the chair of the group said: “It was a wooden apparatus. It was a fantastic zipwire – children from everywhere came along to it.
“The equipment is checked regularly and there was a big hole that this woodpecker made. He must have been flying low for weeks.”
The old zipwire will now be replaced by a metal zipwire which will cost £18,000 which will be funded with contributions and lottery funding. Colin added: “Woody the woodpecker may have done us a favour as the posts were rotting away.
“We got the ball rolling with the fundraising and then to our amazement the lottery gave us the £10,000 so we are getting close to our target. It will cost about £18,000 altogether as there are a lot of hidden costs like resurfacing.
“We hope to have the new zipwire up this year for the children to enjoy as I know they are missing it. We couldn’t just leave the old one and we had to do something for the children.”
