HIGH fencing, erected by Highland Council to create a safe kickabout play area for youngsters in Upper Kessock Street area, has been dismantled less than two years later. The whole exercise is said to have cost “several thousand pounds”, according to a council spokesman. It is understood the figure was around the £7000 mark.

The high fencing, for which Carse Residents’ Association campaigned, surrounded a small area adjacent to the Grant Street car park, backing on to Grant Street properties and alongside a public path. Controversy surrounded the decision to create the play area in 2000, for some feared it would attract an undesirable element and would not be used by families with small children.

But a petition, which residents’ association secretary Donnie Kerr said had almost universal support from tenants roundabout, convinced the authority to go ahead with the plan. Locals said that they seldom saw the facility being used for its intended purpose. After a few months it fell into some disrepair due to vandalism.

Last year a woman was injured when she ran into a broken piece of fence on her bicycle. And last month council workmen came to remove the fencing. “It was just an expensive big white elephant,” said one local.