Despair at playground vote

11:26am Friday 16th May 2008

Newcastle Emlyn's King George V Playing Fields Association committee is despairing today, having discovered that its playground has slipped almost into third place, from its top spot just days ago, in the voting for a £10,000 makeover from tyre company, Goodyear.

The Newcastle Emlyn playground is currently trailing by 10%, with only a week to go until the voting closes.

The West Wales playground, which was ripped out last weekend, having been condemned by the County Council, is the only one in Wales to have made it onto the shortlist of 8 needy playgrounds in Britain. Until yesterday, it had been leading in the online vote. The winner, to be announced on May 23rd, will be the playground that receives the highest number of Internet-based votes on the web site: www.mygoodyear.co.uk. But now it seems the English contenders have been voting in high volumes, dashing Newcastle Emlyn's chances of securing this vital funding.

Fiona White is spearheading the campaign to secure the vote for Newcastle Emlyn. Having started an Action Group earlier this year to rally support for the playground, she recently joined the Association committee to help bolster its fund-raising activities. She says: "If there is anyone out there who hasn't yet voted, for whatever reason, we urge you to act now. It will only take a moment, yet could change the lives of our town's children.

"The school we are up against has a total of 236 pupils and Bingley is a town in the City of Bradford Metropolitan Borough District, West Yorkshire, England - five miles north-west of Bradford. It is split into two wards within the City of Bradford: Bingley (estimated population in 2001 was 15,925) and Bingley Rural (estimated population in 2001 was 16,649). The population of Newcastle Emlyn is a mere 986! We are now trailing in 2nd place, and could easily slip into third place over the weekend, so we desperately need to get the Welsh vote. It doesn't matter where people live - Newcastle Emlyn, Cardiff, London, or New Zealand, we need your support!"

Ms White also suggested that, if people are unsure whether their vote has been registered, to go back onto the web site and check.

A further blow came as the committee learnt that it had not been successful in securing a National Lottery grant worth £50,000. "This is so depressing," Ms White said. "Sometimes we feel as though we are fighting a losing battle in our efforts to give the local children the new playground they so desperately need, but we must not give up. Where there's a will, there's a way - so long as people do everything they can to help us. Wales, we need you!"