DUNVILLE Park is the worst for anti-social behaviour in Belfast – however locals say new figures don't tell the whole story.
 
New stats from Belfast city council reveal that of Belfast’s 52 parks, the top three that have suffered the most from anti-social behaviour are in the West and North of the city. A total of 1,229 cases of anti-social behaviour were reported in the city’s parks since April 2020. 161 incidents were recorded at the height of the pandemic, rising to 769 when lockdown restrictions were lifted.

Dunville Park was top of the list with 249 incidents, followed by Marrowbone Park with 227 and Falls Park in third with 137 incidents.

Lisa Lynn of Falls Residents' Association (FRA) said the findings did not show the whole picture and have left out the repeated attempts by community groups to get Belfast City Council to commit to suggestions for improvement to the safety of the park. Lisa said FRA have had meetings with the Council about Dunville Park and their suggestions have not been taken up.

“We have put more than one solution to the Council when it comes to Dunville Park. At the end of summer 2022 we met Council officials as well as Lord Mayor Tina Black about Dunville Park specifically, about the anti-social behaviour and ongoing criminality and vandalism. We spoke about improved lighting. We didn’t ask for major reinvestment in flood-lighting throughout the park, we asked to increase the wattage in the bulbs.

“We were told the lights can only support a certain wattage and we suggested changing the head on the old fashioned bulbs and there aren’t that many of them as well. We asked could they bring a type of rented lighting to improve visibility in the park and they took everything on board and promised they would get back to us but they didn’t.”

DAMAGE: The park has seen frequent acts of vandalism including fire damage to signs and play equipment
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DAMAGE: The park has seen frequent acts of vandalism including fire damage to signs and play equipment

Lisa added that community groups have presented numerous suggestions for improvement to the Council and have suggested expanding their programme of midnight soccer, which has had a positive impact in reducing anti-social behaviour.

“We have asked the Council to have a heavier presence of safer neighbourhood officers and park wardens and to improve the lighting. We have been suggesting these same things for the last ten years. It is the same thing over and over. We get spikes in anti-social behaviour. The community groups suggest things to be put in place to deal with it and it goes round and round.

“At the weekends there is a decrease in anti-social behaviour because we have been doing midnight soccer in the park, which allows us to hold soccer competitions and training at weekends when anti-social behaviour would be at its highest. We get that in blocks of six weeks and we get that for free which we are grateful for. Community groups don’t have a lot of money so it wouldn’t be possible for us to pay for pitch rental on Friday and Saturday nights.”

The Falls Residents' Association said the figures taken on their own can contribute towards giving the community and park a bad name, but also the figures do not reflect the current work they do, nor do they reflect their suggestions for improving the situation.

“We don’t have the manpower or resources to be in the park seven nights a week. It’s frustrating for us for these findings to be published when our suggestions haven’t been acted upon. It gives the area and community a bad name. We would like to see our suggestions, not necessarily for equipment but for having more programmes and higher numbers of Council staff on, which would be an easy solution to keeping anti-social behaviour at bay.”

Responding Belfast City Council said the Community and Neighbourhood Services Department (CNS) has been under significant pressure since the beginning of the pandemic when their resources were re-directed to help the battle against Covid-19. 

The council said they would be discussing these findings this week with the People and Communities Committee to draw up a more robust system of collecting data on anti-social behaviour and undertaking a review with park wardens and safer neighbourhood officers which will be completed this month.