Housing estate residents are furious after a local authority asked teenagers to stop playing ballgames
on their green.
Laois County Council sent a letter to 89 houses in Esker Hills, Portlaoise, asking children to call full-time on their games because it was “causing distress”.
But parents in Hawthorn Way have slammed the move by the authority.
David Finn, whose children use the green, said: “When the estate was built in 2007 the council insisted the planning application included a green space for children to play on and now they are telling them to stop.
“You read all the time about kids being involved in anti-social behaviour and how parents should know where they are at all times and here’s the council trying to make that job more difficult.
“If they feel that what is happening is anti-social then surely that’s a job for the guards not the council.” The local authority claimed it is glad children are using the space to play on but urged parents to help stop ballgames.
The letter said: “Unfortunately, because the green area is so close to properties, it is causing upset to many residents.
“Obviously, I can’t dictate what happens on this green. We want to prevent it from turning into an overgrown meadow and to ensure the smaller children have a place to play on.
“It’s not unreasonable to ask the football facilities locally are made use of or even the green area in the wider Esker Hills that’s not located so closely to houses be used by the teenagers.”
Mr Finn claimed the area is not used by older children with only kids aged to 11 playing there.
He also raised concerns over the new area that parents have been asked to send their kids as “it is only cut once every four weeks and people walk their dogs there so it isn’t suitable”.
Mr Finn said: “The whole thing has been pretty divisive, there are 500 houses on the estate and while the majority of them wouldn’t have a problem with kids kicking a ball around there are some who take
exception to it.
“Don’t buy or rent a house on the green if the sight of kids having fun upsets you.
“The question most of us would like an answer to is when the country has a huge anti-social behavioural problem, why would the council actively try to stop kids playing football?”
A spokeswoman for the local authority claimed it would not normally intervene in situations like this but as it provides grants to housholds for cutting grass on the green it has a vested interest in it.
She added: “The residents’ association also contributes to the cost of that and a number of people have told us unless the football stops they will not pay their share which means the place will become a wilderness and the younger kids won’t be able to use it.”
