Sophie Wade who opposed playground fix swings into action
The ex-Yarra mayor who voted against upgrading Melbourne’s “saddest playground” is now shamelessly attacking the state government for not maintaining another one nearby.
Putting the squeeze on Victoria’s movers, shakers and headline makers
Sophie Wade, a Greens councillor in the People’s Republic of Yarra, recently popped down to the Collingwood housing estate to film a video complaining about the state of the playground.
It was “pretty garbage”, she said, with a lack of tan bark and swings that are “weirdly high”.
The Source agrees — it looks pretty sad. But not as sad as Melbourne’s saddest playground.
Remember that one? It was actually just down the road, at the Cambridge St Reserve, and received national attention after a $2m City of Yarra upgrade transformed it into what local residents called a “prison yard”.
Seesaws, slides and swings were ripped out and replaced with an industrial-style bucket swing, a metal balance beam and two simple climbing bars.
Eventually, the council was shamed into spending an extra $250,000 fixing it up. But only after Wade and her Greens colleague Edward Crossland voted against installing more play equipment because doing so would mean 7 per cent less grass.
Wade, a former Yarra mayor, might now have a point about the state government dudding the residents of housing estates where they are in control of the playgrounds. Some maintenance work and an upgrade seems like a decent idea.
But she really has no shame.
“I think it’s about time that we served our public housing residents and gave good playgrounds to all our kids,” Wade said in her video, “not just the ones who happen to have playgrounds on council land.”
Here at The Source, we don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
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Originally published as Sophie Wade who opposed playground fix swings into action
