A Southport councillor has been accused of being "willfully ignorant or deliberately mischievous" after a report claimed park campaigners had been "bamboozled" into believing the promises of "outside politicians".

The park on Ovington Drive on the Kew Estate was closed in August after its 30-year-old equipment was decommissioned as a safety precaution. It followed an accident in which a young girl in Formby broke her arm on equipment of a similar age and design after it suddenly failed due to internal corrosion.

Since then local park campaigners have fought to ensure that the playground is re-opened and, with the assistance of Liz Savage and members of the Kew Ward branch of Southport Labour Party, they managed to secure a guarantee of £30,000 from Sefton Council towards the estimated £50,000 like-for-like equipment replacement cost.

The campaigners have since called on their ward councillors to contribute the rest from the funds currently available to them, which at present stands at over £40,000. Kew Ward's three Liberal Democrat councillors have so far resisted the request.

Two of the organisers of the Kew Playground Campaign, however, recently met Sefton Council officers and Sefton Cabinet Member Ian Moncur to start the consultation process on how to replace the old equipment at the park on Ovington Drive. Officers have also made contact with the local Kew Woods Primary School to ensure that local children get the chance to directly input into the playground refurbishment.

Despite this, Councillor Dawson, a former Lib-Dem who is currently independent after being suspended by the party, has now claimed that the £30,000 is not available:
"All the time since early September that the campaigning residents and the wider public were being informed decisions had been made to offer tens of thousands of pounds of Council cash for these playgrounds, there had been no such decisions made at all.”

His comments though have been roundly dismissed by Councillor Ian Moncur, who has responsibility for parks:

"Councillor Dawson is either being willfully ignorant or deliberately mischievous. He was clearly and repeatedly told where the money is coming from and how at last Thursday's council meeting. To subsequently issue such comments is deeply irresponsible and serves nothing but to cause completely unnecessary confusion. The £30,000 is guaranteed, it is now up to the ward councillors to contribute funds to ensure that the appropriate level of replacement equipment can be achieved. Despite repeated requests by officers for information from the Kew Ward councillors on how much they will give, so far no commitment has been given."

Tracy Burke, one of the park campaigners was equally scathing:

"We met the council officers and they are also going into the school, the consultation process to replace the equipment is underway, why would any of that be happening if there is no money to pay for the equipment? Is Councillor Dawson now trying to suggest that the officers are involved in some sort of hoodwinking exercise to fool us and the children? It seems his comments are more designed to deflect attention away from the fact that his former colleagues are sitting on over £40,000 worth of funds and yet have so far failed to contribute a single penny towards restoring the park and helping the local kids."

One of the young mums involved the park group, Diane Thomas, believes Cllr Dawson is trying to undermine their campaign:

"This is not the first time Councillor Dawson has spread misinformation, which was part of why we banned him from our Facebook page. This latest report also criticised outside politicians but he doesn't even represent Kew Ward. It's bizarre. He seems to have made it his mission but it simply won't work. He won't distract us from our aim of getting the park re-opened, he will not derail the consultation and he will not stop us from highlighting that the Kew Ward Councillors are still refusing to help the children of Kew Estate. Councillor Dawson would do far better to write to his former colleagues asking them to release the ward's funds and stop ignoring our children, than peddling this foolishness."

The Kew Plaground campaign page can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/kewplayground/

Surely Dawson is undermining the council by spreading lies isn't that a suspendable offence?

Suspended by his party, reported to Sefton Council for his boorish behaviour towards two female Southport residents at a Southport Area Committee meeting you would think Cllr Dawson would back off , but no!! seemingly this man s ego overides everything. Well done Username for highlighting what appears to be a litany of unfitting behaviour from this individual.

It all tends to get rather tedious and I think all politicians should start to do what they are paid to do instead of playing childish, tit for tat games, on the internet.

Tony Dawson appears to get out of bed in a morning to try and spread vicious rumours and attempt to mess things up that don't concern him.
19. Question submitted by Councillor Dawson to the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing (Cllr Moncur)
“Given that I am informed by Council officers that there is “no capital budget for replacing playgrounds or equipment, only a small operational revenue budget for spares and other smaller works generated, for example, in response to vandalism”; could the Cabinet Member inform me, with dates, of any decisions which have been made by any part of the Council to either provisionally or definitely expend Council monies of more than £1000 on play equipment replacement in respect of municipal play areas in any part of the Borough?”

Response:
“You were informed that ‘there is no capital budget for funding playgrounds or major refurbishments for which we rely on capital grants and external funding’. I, as Cabinet Member and officers, have the necessary powers to vire monies which have been delegated to us by the constitution. I was advised in August by officers that the equipment at Ovington Park was dangerous and they recommended closure. I agreed the officers recommendation on safety grounds. A meeting was arranged to discuss this on 1st September. As a result of community reaction to the closure and representations made to theLeader and I, I exercised my discretion to identify funding from within the existing parks budget to prevent the closure.

Taken from the minutes from last Thursdays council meeting !

Which part of the response didn't he understand?
Kew playground campaign have been guaranteed 30k end of !

"Which part of the response didn't he understand?"

Why not ask him yourself, under a real name?

Originally Posted by seafood

"Which part of the response didn't he understand?"

Why not ask him yourself, under a real name?

Classic bit of avoiding the bleedin' obvious there... well done you!

The simple fact is Cllr Dawson has been clearly told that the money is there but chooses to ignore that and deliberately puts out misinformation... and somehow you want to defend that, wonder why?

Originally Posted by seafood

"Which part of the response didn't he understand?"

Why not ask him yourself, under a real name?

I'm not particularly hiding my name Mr/Mrs Seafood .
I don't particularly want to ever meet the man but will gladly ask on here.
Tracy Burke
Kew playground campaign

[QUOTE=Muzungu;6619520]
you would think Cllr Dawson would back off

Never! When I came back home to Southport,in 2000 he was described to me as Dr Pug’s Rottweiler, working at the Lib Dem office. I was told he was probably the most disliked man in Southport.
I have never met him but from all the posts on here about him, I am quite pleased not to know him.

[QUOTE=toothache;6619603]

Originally Posted by Muzungu

you would think Cllr Dawson would back off

Never! When I came back home to Southport,in 2000 he was described to me as Dr Pug’s Rottweiler, working at the Lib Dem office. I was told he was probably the most disliked man in Southport.
I have never met him but from all the posts on here about him, I am quite pleased not to know him.

Perhaps you need to ask yourself this. Does anyone really care one iota what was 'described' to you, or what does or does not 'please' you?

I would imagine that Cllr Dawson will not lose much sleep over anything you have said or written.

Originally Posted by TDawg

I'm not particularly hiding my name Mr/Mrs Seafood .
I don't particularly want to ever meet the man but will gladly ask on here.
Tracy Burke
Kew playground campaign

But Tracy you and your Labour friends do seem to be going well out of your way to attract the good councillor's attention. This is not really the action of someone who wishes to keep away from any unpleasantness, is it?

Originally Posted by seafood

But Tracy you and your Labour friends do seem to be going well out of your way to attract the good councillor's attention. This is not really the action of someone who wishes to keep away from any unpleasantness, is it?

Not at all , it's got absolutely nothing to do with him and he's got himself involved

Originally Posted by seafood

"Which part of the response didn't he understand?"

Why not ask him yourself, under a real name?

Anyway Mr /Mrs Seafood seeing as I identified myself why don't you return the favour and identify yourself , you seem to have a lot to say about Kew Playground campaign it would be nice to know who you really are . . . 😁

I know you Seafood (a cock) le? you are Prasnee in is disguise I hearby claim my five Pounds. You also by sloppy editing attributed a quote to me which I clearly did not make.