Sydney council successful in removing park from Pokemon Go

IT WAS the most notorious Pokemon Go spot in Sydney but local residents have won a battle to get it removed from the game.

Pictured at a children's play area in Rhodes are Pokemon Go players standing together playing in 10 degrees. Picture: Richard Dobson

A SYDNEY council has triumphed in a battle to have one of its local parks removed as a Pokestop in the world of Pokemon Go.

The Peg Paterson Park in Rhodes, which is surrounded by apartment buildings, was a designated Pokestop in the augmented reality game where players could collect in-game items and hope to catch Pokemon characters.

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the game, the small suburban park has been flooded with smartphone-wielding players every night for the past few weeks, causing major issues for local residents including noise pollution, traffic jams and the large amount of rubbish being left in the park.

However those in the surrounding apartment blocks can look forward to a decent sleep for the first time in nearly a month after the latest update of the game appears to have removed the area from the game.

The park previously had three Pokestops intersecting at the location, but on Monday night a reddit user posted a screenshot of the Peg Paterson Park display in the augmented reality game without the Pokestops being displayed, claiming “all Pokestops have been removed from the Rhodes area”.

“Considering how inconsiderate a lot of people were being that’s a good thing. Rotten eggs ruining it for everyone,” said the top comment.

“Good. The amount of rubbish and cigarette butts they were leaving behind was sickening, not to mention the congestion issues,” commented another user.

Other Pokemong Go players took to Twitter in order to pay their respects to arguably the most notorious Pokemon spot in Sydney and lament its disappearance.

Wow they removed all the pokestops from Rhodes. You were good to us Peg Paterson Park, R.I.P

— Potato (@jamietannguyen) August 1, 2016

The latest Pokemon Go update removed *all three* Pokestops from this park. :( Congrats @NianticLabs, Rhodes no longer officially exists
RIP

— Infernal Monkey (@infernal_monkey) August 1, 2016

In a statement provided to news.com.au, the City of Canada Bay expressed gratitude to the producers of the Game, Niantic Labs, for closing the Pokestops in Rhodes which “were creating a potentially dangerous situation.”

“Following our submission to Niantic, Pokestops in Rhodes have been closed. While we have not received confirmation from Niantic, we have had confirmation from gamers,” Deputy Mayor Helen McCaffrey said.

“We thank Niantic for taking our submission seriously and acting before there were any major incidents caused by the intense level of activity around Rhodes.

“We have Pokestops and gyms throughout our local government area and we encourage the community to enjoy the beautiful public spaces across the City of Canada Bay area while catching Pokemon.”

A large gathering of Pokemon Go players that congregated in Rhodes in July.

Players dice with danger and enrage motorists as they spill on to a road at Rhodes.

Local residents had previously described the scenes in the park prompted by waves of Pokemon Go players as “complete chaos”.

On one occasion Pokemon Go players were pelted with waterbombs by a resident in the above apartment block.

“The backlash has started, 300 of us in Rhodes got water bombed by some resident in the apartments,” wrote one player on Facebook on July 13.

The local Canada Bay Council had encouraged residents to petition Niantic Labs to remove some of the Pokestops from the park in a move that appears to have paid off.

The removal of the Peg Paterson Park comes just two days after the Baird government announced it would crackdown on sacred sites being featured in the game.

Veterans Affairs Minister David Elliott said the government had asked Niantic to remove a Pokestop from the Anzac Memorial in Sydney’s Hyde Park saying it was a place for “quiet contemplation”, and was “not appropriate” for gaming.