RESIDENTS have voiced their fury at not being consulted following a council decision to spend an extra £86,000 on a play area.

The South Wales Argus reported last week that Newport City Council has plans to spend an estimated £86,000 to fix “noise problems” on the Afon Village Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) in Rogerstone.

The announcement comes when the council previously spent £59,085.63 trying to fix the same issue, meaning a total of £145,058.63 will soon have been spent on the site.

Some residents have vented their anger at not being consulted.

Resident Isolde Shore-Nye said she was concerned at the “lack of transparency”.

She said: “The main thing for me is that we have not been consulted.

“There is a lack of transparency.

“This is a lot of money so we should have been consulted.”

Another resident Rob Blake added: “It is shocking that this amount of money is going to be spent

“We have not been asked to give our opinion. We live here and we have not been asked. This affects us.”

Another resident, who did not wish to be named, said: “I love the MUGA and now it is going to be closed. I wish I had been able to give my take on this plan."

It will now be temporarily closed for about two months in the new year for the works to start, with new opening times in place.

Councillor Chris Evans for Rogerstone has claimed that he was told a consultation would be carried out if there were any changes to the opening hours..

“I asked a question and was told that there would be a consultation on any changes to the MUGA,” said Cllr Evans. “The guarantee was not time sensitive.

“This is a lot of money that is going to be spent, at a time when we are being told there is not a lot of money available.

“I am calling on the council to do the right thing and hold a consultation with the public.”

He added: “There was a consultation before so there should be one now.”

But a spokeswoman from Newport council said: “It was agreed a consultation would take place with residents in June specifically in relation to new opening hours that were introduced in July.

“There was no commitment to consult on every change to the multi-use games area in future. Unfortunately, it has become necessary to change the hours again to prevent misuse of the site.

“The new hours, together with the improvements work being carried out early next year, were essential to ensuring the area could remain open.

"The other option was to close the MUGA completely.”