Published: Less than 10 min ago
A creative place for children has become a haunt for rodents.
When a rat appeared in a pram, a security guard pulled the emergency brake.
– We cannot have a situation where rats jump on our employees, says human resources manager Anna Malmcrona to the news agency Siren.
It started as an itinerant summer activity in 2014 to give children in Gothenburg the opportunity to do carpentry and crafts. A few years later, in 2018, the manned construction playground in Biskopsgården got a permanent place in Långströmsparken.
– I have worked with children for many years and there are no children who don’t like carpentry and hammering, they run straight to the tools, exclaimed leisure assistant Marie-Louise Bergström, in an exuberant press release.
Now the playground has received unwanted intruders. Lots of rats have taken over. Recently a rat crawled up into a pram and into a diaper bag.
Then a security officer sounded the alarm – with a so-called protective stop.
“We are concerned that a child may be bitten by a rat and cannot currently protect visitors from the rats that move freely and openly on the outside of the construction playground,” writes the safety representative.
Ineffective measures
The protection representative states that the problem is not new and that a number of ineffective measures have already been put in place.
The municipality states that several administrations are working on efforts to regain control of the construction playground.
– Right now the playground is closed for the season, so the stop had no practical meaning. We are working intensively on this but have so far not managed to resolve the situation, says human resources manager Anna Malmcrona to Siren.
She agrees that the situation is unsustainable and further emphasizes that the stoppage concerns the staff’s working environment.
– We cannot have a situation where rats jump on our employees when they are there. So this has to be managed until the playground reopens next year, she tells Siren.