A MOTHER-OF-THREE has started a petition calling for the facilities in Newport’s Tredegar Park to be revamped and made more family-friendly.

When she visited the park with her children last Wednesday morning (August 22), Louise Smith was shocked to find the toilets in the park were closed.

She then decided to whip up popular support calling on the council to improve the park’s facilities, which she said were in “a sorry state”.

Another of her priorities is reviving the park’s now-defunct splash park, a £120,000 children’s play facility which was closed in 2014.

On her petition’s website, Mrs Smith called on residents to “help make Newport council see that it is not acceptable to have Tredegar Park in the poor standard it is at the moment.

“I just think as a city we need a splash park again and better facilities for our children, especially operational toilets”, she said.

Speaking to the Argus, Mrs Smith said how frustrated she had felt when she visited the park recently with her children.

“My eight-year-old daughter has cystic fibrosis and needs the toilet quite often”, she said.

Citing her “dignity and hygiene”, Mrs Smith said her daughter didn’t want to “go behind a bush”.

The only alternative was for the young family to leave the park and go home.

She believes other parents with young children must be finding themselves in a similar situation.

“The toilets should be open when the park opens”, Mrs Smith said.

“The park is nice but it’s a shame. By the time we left, it was busy.”

The Argus has previously reported, following similar complaints from another Newport resident, how the council decided to close the park’s toilets because of vandalism.

Speaking about that decision, Mrs Smith said: “[The council] said the toilets aren’t opened due to vandalism, but at that time of day there are only dog walkers and families in the park.”

She saw her frustrations as an opportunity to call for wider change in the park.

“With the events they have in that park, they can obviously get funding from somewhere”, she said.

“I used to go to the splash park when I was younger, but they let that get into a state of disrepair.

“Victoria Park in Cardiff is lovely and I think Newport has more to offer families, especially in the summer.”

Since its launch, Mrs Smith’s petition has gathered 577 signatures.

A spokeswoman from Newport City Council said the authority had not been informed of any petition calling for water feature to be reinstalled at Tredegar Park and the toilets open for longer hours.

She said: “However the water play feature in the park has been out of action for more than four years.

“In 2014 a series of structural and mechanical inspections were undertaken and the results concluded that the water play feature required significant capital investment to replace the infrastructure to enable it to reopen.

“Then it would have cost £200,000 to repair or replace the facility and Newport City Council simply does not have that sort of money when budgets for vital services are being squeezed.

“Budgets also play a part in the decisions as to how the park’s toilets are staffed. In our statement issued earlier this year we stressed that the provision of public toilets is not a statutory requirement and access to the toilets is only available when there are staff members on site to oversee the facilities.

“Due to staffing resources it is difficult to advertise opening and closing times as staff members working in the park have to leave the facility to inspect and cleanse other areas within the locality.

“During the summer months staff are in the park from 12.30pm when the toilets open and the facilities remain open until the gates close at the end of the day. However the rangers will have to close the toilets temporarily if required to attend to an emergency on site

“In the past the council has trialed opening the facilities without staff present but unfortunately has experienced considerable vandalism costing thousands to repair.”