Newbury mum calls for safety improvements to Greenham park after young son's wrist drama

10-year-old needed 15 stitches in the wound

A worried mother is calling for action after her young son was left needing hospital treatment after catching his wrist on a security fence surrounding a play park.

Tara Fairchild’s 10-year-old son Leon needed 15 stitches in the wound and she says he is now struggling to sleep due to the pain and the memory of what happened.

He had scrambled through a ground level hole, apparently cut into a large security fence at the ‘Spider Park’ in Christie Heights, Newbury, and then was climbing back over the fence when the accident happened.

Leon got caught as he jumped off, ripping open his wrist, and it is these ‘spikes’ at the top of the fencing that Mrs Fairchild is now calling on Newbury Town Council to remove.

The town council, which operates the park, confirmed that the security fence was British Standard-compliant and used regularly around play parks and other venues across the area and further afield.

Leon, who attends The Willows Primary School, was taken to hospital in Basingstoke where he was given antibiotics and had his wrist stitched up.

“He can’t write and he’s had nightmares,” Mrs Fairchild said.

“He loves school and is generally a very bubbly 10-year-old but this has made him very withdrawn.

“The doctor said it could be a few months before he can get back to his street dance and breakdancing, which he loves.

“It [the hole] had been there for quite some time and if he hadn’t been able to climb through it, he wouldn’t have been able to climb back over the fence,” mother-of-four Mrs Fairchild explained.

“As he went to jump his wrist got stuck.

“The paramedics said he was very lucky as it was so close to his tendons, nerves and arteries.

“That fence shouldn’t be there.

“There’s no security fence around any other park.

“All I am asking is that they cut the spikes off to stop another child impaling themselves.

“All I want is for them to fix the issues there.

“It is dangerous and I want them to admit that and admit that they have neglected it.

“I have put in a complaint but they are refusing to do anything.”

Newbury Town Council chief executive Hugh Peacocke said: “The incident has been reported to us and we are carrying out a full investigation.

“We have no further comment to make at this stage.”