Pound's Park: Graffiti scrawled on climbing frame at popular Sheffield children's play park

A popular Sheffield children's play park was defaced with graffiti over the weekend.

Pound's Park, on Wellington Street, fully launched in May 2023 and immediately proved to be a smash hit. The interactive water features, sand pits and bendy slides draw hundreds of children and parents in to town on busy weekends.

It's a shame the pristine park cannot be spared from anti-social behaviour forever. Over the weekend (March 23-24), graffiti tags have been sprayed on the climbing frame, as well as on nearby office windows.

The impudent scrawls have marred the south-facing side of the frame in yellow and will need to be cleaned off or varnished over at cost to the city council.

Pound's Park was completed last year and was one of the most eagerly anticipated projects to come out of the £480m Heart of the City regeneration scheme led by Sheffield City Council and their partner Queensberry.

Some detractors wrote to The Star to say Pound's Park would be a hub for anti-social behaviour because of its proximity to Sheffield's major nightlife hotspots like Division Street and West Street.

This has so far been largely untrue, and in the 10 months since its launch, Pound's Park has largely gone without incident, with few incidents attributed to it on South Yorkshire Police's crime maps.

However, on March 9 this year, the play area was cordoned off by police following a stabbing on West Street.