Tullow town park left to rogue youths

A COUNTY councillor has claimed that Tullow Town Park has been ‘abandoned’ by the council, leaving it to be vandalised by a group of youths.

At the September meeting of Tullow municipal district, cllr William Paton said he was “bitterly disappointed” with the current state of the park, which he described as being in “poor condition”.

“It is like Carlow County Council has abandoned the park,” said cllr Paton.

“It is so bad that a group of teenagers - I could use other words in front of that - have taken out the bolts that are holding down the benches and moved them under a tree canopy and created their own den space,” he said, adding that last week a fire was started which had to be put out by the fire service.

“It is filthy, it is dirty, it is full of graffiti, it does not reflect well on Tullow and I don’t think it is fair. It is horrible,” cllr Paton said.

He stressed that, while there is currently a problem with rogue youths in the town, there are “marvellous teenagers in Tullow who are some of the nicest young people you could ever meet”.

“But there is a gang of about a dozen of them going around Tullow at the moment who absolutely think they own the place. They have no respect for property or people and I think as a municipal district we should be making contact with the gardaí,” he continued.

Cllr Paton claimed that in one instance this same gang had used catapults to slingshot stones into the garden of an elderly person in the town, which, he said, was “completely and utterly unacceptable”.

Director of services Michael Brennan said that, as previously discussed at the July meeting, works will start on the park in Q4 and will be completed in the first quarter of 2027.

“At the October meeting, we will have a full, comprehensive report on Tullow Town Park,” added Mr Brennan.