WHY do certain councillors feel they are suitably qualified to disagree with the recommendations by RoSPA regarding their risk assessment of the Meadows? (Times, November 4).

What is the point of commissioning such experts if their findings are simply going to be disregarded?

Councillor Norma Woodcock has previously objected to fencing off the play area on the grounds that ?it would ruin the open vista of the park?. How a low picket fence could do this, is beyond me.

Surely, the safety of children is of paramount importance anyway. Such councillors should be reminded that they are in office to represent the views of their constituents and not their own. Those that fail this fundamental principle will hopefully be remembered at the ballot box.

Come on Tavistock, let?s make the Meadows a safe park to be proud of, an area which attracts people into the town, not just an open expanse of grass on which dogs seem to foul with impunity.

Mike George

20 Manor Road

Tavistock

ARE we all mad? Why do we have to fence in an area that in my living memory has never had any fatal accidents? But wait! Have they done the risk assessment correctly on the Meadows?

l People come to feed the ducks ? that?s out, ducks can bite and can carry salmonella. Sorry kids, far too dangerous!

l grass can be slippery when wet, so sorry again kids, no going on the grass

l trees have branches that can fall off without prior warning, so no going near the trees

l balls can hit you on the head and hurt you, so no ball games kids

l the children could fall in the swimming pool when going to Meadowlands ? we?ll tarmac that.

l there?s that nasty Plymouth Road you walk to school on every day of the week ? shall we fence that too?

When are we going to stop?

It may be just as well to bubble-wrap everyone and that way we will all just suffocate. I am surprised that your ?superintendent? didn?t just close the Meadows the minute he managed to leave it unscathed ? phew!

Mark Pearce

Milton Abbot

AS a mother I strongly agree that a fence should be erected around the park playing area.

I feel it is a shame that children are unable to run freely without shoes during the summer: reason being:

I am a dog lover too but find it disgraceful that certain dog owners do not carry the relevant things to clean their dog mess up with, and still allow their dogs to roam the park without a lead on.

Children love to run around and explore freely and being so close to the canal and river without a fence is like an accident waiting to happen.

Let?s not have a tragedy to make us see sense.

Lisa Dyke

Plymouth Road resident

I WRITE to support Councillors Mrs Woodcock and Sherrell in their stern defence of common sense.

It is perfectly proper for the council to take note of RoSPA recommendations, but such advice does not have to be heeded willy-nilly. It is permissible and defensible to moderate it in the light of local experience.

If it is true that nobody has drowned in the canal for 50 years, and that was an adult in the midst of an annual fair, then clearly the risk to children is slight - moderate is one step from low as well as from high!

In practice it is actually quite difficult for a small child to stray from the play area and climb the embankment unnoticed, and any child so poorly supervised is at much greater risk from traffic on the way to the Meadows than whilst at play.

Even if a child did fall in, as my ten-year-old observed, ?Most of the children who play in the Meadows are able to stand up in the canal?.

As a parent I am more concerned about dog faeces and discarded needles, which I cannot control, than the escapades of my children, which I can. Children need to grow up with a proper sense of acceptable risk and the council discussions, as reported, do little to this end.

Simon Howes

25 Wheal Maria

Tavistock

WE wholly endorse the position taken by Wayne Southall in relation to child safety in the Meadows.

The findings of RoSPA are both irrefutable and sensible.

We live just three minutes on foot from the park but often choose to travel to Yelverton for our young son and his cousins to play in safety and with far better facilities.

Ian Gillespy, Rebecca Gillespy

39 West Street

Tavistock

PLEASE, please, please build a fence around the play park in the Meadows.

The dogs run around and sometimes poo which is horrible for children like us to stand in.

It would be very kind if you could build a fence around the play park for us.

We also want the fence there because small children without the fence could run out and fall in the river without their parents knowing.

Eleanor Hollett, aged 10, and Imogen Hollett, aged 5