Aberdeen council has come under fire after over-shooting a deadline – by a year – to remove its many ‘No Ball Games’ signs across the city.
The authority yesterday admitted there were “considerably more” signs than first thought when the authority pledged to have them all taken down by August 3, 2016 – UK National Play Day.
Football legend Denis Law kick-started the scheme back in 2015 when he came to Aberdeen to help remove some of the signs.
The council have since asked people to get in touch to identify those still in place so action can be taken.
Councillors backed plans two years ago to become the first local authority in Scotland to have all ‘no ball games’ signs on public grass space around the city taken down.
However, a year after the deadline, signs are still in place in parts of the city, including Dyce, Bridge of Don, Mastrick and the city centre.
One of the signs is just yards from the Cruyff Court community sports facility – part of a regeneration programme inspired by Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff – which was opened by Denis Law last month.
SNP Aberdeen leader Stephen Flynn has hit out saying the policy must be made clear on the signs.
He said: “The fact that countless numbers of these signs are still littered throughout the city flies in the face of previous promises made by the administration and indeed unanimous decisions taken by councillors.
“As a council we should be committed to encouraging children to play and it’s high time that rhetoric was turned into reality – every effort must be made to take these unenforceable and unsightly signs down and any reason for further delay must be made clear to councillors.
“If the administration have changed their policy on this matter then they must make that clear to the people of Aberdeen, otherwise they should actually get on with the job at hand.”
The city council had previously said it would be removing the signs from green spaces either owned or managed by the local authority.
The signs were put up over a number of years on a piecemeal basis at the request of residents to deter what was regarded as antisocial behaviour.
A council spokeswoman said: “We have removed hundreds of ‘no ball games’ signs around the city, however there were considerably more than originally anticipated.
“We are endeavouring to remove all of them although there may be sites where some kind of deterrent, such as additional planting may be appropriate, for example near sheltered housing.
“We would be delighted if people could let us know if they find a ‘no ball games’ sign so it can be removed.”
