ARE YOUR TODDLERS IN DANGER? (Blackpool Sandcastle)

Member Name: callancool

Product:	Blackpool Sandcastle
Date:	01/09/03 (1252 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Unsupervised in busy arcade, Near tram tracks/very busy road

THIS IS A SERIOUS WARNING TO ALL PARENTS OF TODDLERS VISITING BLACKPOOL SANDCASTLE FOR THE ILLUMINATIONS SEASON. In the Sandcastle at blackpool is a childrens play area by the cafe. Now though you only get 45 minutes for £1.50, that's not my gripe. There is one entrance/exit in the play area yet it is in my opinion unsupervised. You pay at the cafe and your child is given a couloured smock to put on. I think the Sandcastle's idea is that parents sit in the cafe and supervise their kids themselves for 45 + mins, going to the cafe to buy food, snacks, drinks etc. It would be easy to put an attendant on the entrance to ensure that kids didn't leave unless accompanied. 200 yards from this was the tram lines and main road. Goodness knows what would happen if a child left the play area while a parent's back was turned for a minute whilst buying a drink in the cafe, or spending a penny.

I had to watch my 6 year old like a hawk, and kids were popping in and out for a second or two to go to parents in the cafe. The cafe attendant was too busy serving customers. I asked a member of security walking round whilst it was unsupervised and the reply was that the kids have smocks to wear so that staff or security cameras would spot then walking around unattended. This is not good enough, in fact it's simply dangerous. Anything can happen to our kids. God blessed mankind with our little treasures, and the Sandcastle should remember this.If the Chief executive's children were hurt or injured in any way he wouldn't be happy, yet it's ok for our kids to be put at risk. And can the sandcastle being packed with people give us any reason for their staff/camera operators would not simply assume that a child in a smock outside the play area was looking for their parents and ignore them. This is simply a tragedy waiting to happen.

Am I right to be complaining, or should we all be staying watching our children whilst in the play area? Other
play areas have an attendant at the entry so kids can't walk out on their own, or locked doors, but not the sandcastle. And does anyone know to whom I should be addressing my complaint to at blackpool council, and an apropriate e-mail adress. And have the Sandcastle been pulled up over this before. After all, any child's life is worth far more than a £17'400 a year minimum wage for 2 attendants on a rota. Unfotunately I cannot give this the No Star rating I think it deserves so 1 will have to do.

Summary: