Newton Park is small and run down. It is used by children of all ages, but caters, and not very effectively, for only those up to about seven, as can be seen from photos of the small play area, which contains the following scintillating equipment.
The larger play area contains one goal post and is used for ball games by older children. I believe that at least one five a side team practices there. Other children play on the edge of the brook.
The small play area is chock-a-block at busy areas, such as immediately after school, but later in the day, and at weekends, it can be less busy and entirely taken over by teenagers, who have nowhere else to go, but who inadvertently intimidate parents there with their toddlers, causing them to quickly move on.
Limited bike riding occurs within the Park due to lack of facilities, including a suitable surface. The main path splits into two at the main entrance: One fork goes to the children’s play area and stops at its gate, whilst the other heads off through the centre of the make shift football pitch before curving round to the school nursery entrance. The other path, which is un-tarmacked and virtually unusable in the winter, enters at the top of Frieston, runs along the brook, though a narrow passageway before turning off to the top of Banbury drive. No one path circuits the park.
Opening up the Park would allow its users to co-exist comfortably within the park, but, more than that, it would help build a more cohesive community: The removal of the house might even help create a ‘village green’ type environment, where people interact more.
At the moment, residents on the east and west side of the park, in particular, have little to do with each other, partly because of the physical separation of the two areas, which are, in effect two parks. Before capitulating on this one issue, the Council intended to make the situation worse, by cutting off a track down the side of the house linking Banbury Drive with Leys Road so that the only link between the two areas was the muddy track run between the house and Baguley drive.