Popular Sheffield playground to remain closed for the rest of school holidays

Hillsborough playground was closed along with all the other sites in the city due to lockdown.

While others have reopened, it has remained closed - despite a travelling fairground being in the park this week.

Sheffield Council says the slide needs replacing and it didn't want to open the playground, only to close it again for repairs.

But it means hundreds of families will have missed a whole summer of playing there.

Council officers say there are 95 sites open, including those with multiple play areas.

Officers say: "We aim to get the rest of the playgrounds open this week and are starting to look at playgrounds on housing sites too, with the hope of getting most of those sites cleaned and opened this week.

"There are a small number of playgrounds that won’t be opening at present because of very specific issues.

"They are Hillsborough - the theft of the slide made the site unsafe and there was due to be improvement works which will now take place at the end of August. We don’t wish to open the playground very briefly and then close it again.

"At Rundle Road there are surfacing issues which we need to address and at Wolfe Road we are awaiting parts to repair the roundabout."

Councillors on the planning board will decide next week whether a new bike track can be built at Hillsborough park.

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