WORK is finally underway to make safe a crumbling former play area in Freshbrook where a six-year-old girl was injured falling from a wall last year.

The play area, between Cottington Close and Crawford Close, was decommissioned more than 10 years ago, leaving a 5ft boundary wall, with several cracked smaller walls inside and a concrete mound which once supported a slide.

Parents said they had long warned Swindon Council the area was an accident waiting to happen because children still play on the old walls – and claimed they had called for it to be either grassed over or replaced with a new play area.

The area has been cordoned off behind a safety fence for some months, but this week the council’s contractor, Swindon Commercial Services Ltd (SCS), started work to remove the walls and mound, and create a flat surfaced area.

In August, Ayse was sitting on the boundary wall, trying to help another child up, when she slipped and fell, hitting her head and arm on the wall.

The Millbrook Primary School pupil, now aged seven, suffered a broken right arm and a cut forehead.

Her mother, Gemma Timur, 27, who threatened to sue the council at the time, said she would have preferred a play area to be reinstated, but was delighted it was at least being made safe as there were lots of families in the area.

Gemma, who has lived in Cottington Close for three years, said: “It’s all good. I have been out there yesterday watching them and having a look at what they’re doing. They’re doing a good job.

“They’re going to be there for a week, they said. They have got all the walls down at the moment.

“Hopefully it will be a lot safer for the walls not to be there and hopefully the kids will be able to run around a bit and go on their bikes when they’re playing.”

However, she said she wanted to know what would happen with the grassy bank, which has been exposed since the boundary walls were taken down, as she fears the mud would slide down when it rains.

Coun Cindy Matthews (Lab, Lydiard and Freshbrook), who has been calling for the area to be made safe, said: “I’m really pleased that they’re doing it and that something has happened at last.

“It will make it look much nicer. It will be a bit of open space for the children to play in.

“It just looked such an eyesore with the fencing around it and the fencing got broken down.”

Coun Matthews added: “It’s not going to be a playground, it’s just going to be open space.

“I don’t think there’s the money to do another playground when there’s one over the road.

“It would be nice to think we could have some seats there and it could be nicer.”