Pensioner’s kitchen window damaged by stones thrown from new Swansea Arena coastal park

A STARTLED pensioner said she was certain that stones thrown from the new coastal park by Swansea Arena cracked her kitchen window.

Anne Milza said was in her living room of her Swansea Marina council flat last Friday evening when she was jolted by a noise.

“It was a loud bang,” she said. “It was frightening at the time. My neighbours downstairs heard the noise as well. One of them is in their 90s.”

Ms Milza, 81, discovered that something had cracked her double-glazed kitchen window.

She then found stone chippings on the ground outside, which she said hadn’t been there before.

She contacted the council to arrange a window replacement, and also phoned a council election candidate she had met previously called Sam Bennett, who visited her the following morning.

Ms Milza said she and Mr Bennett walked across to the coastal park and found a section of unsecured guard rail, which runs along the perimeter between the park and the former railway embankment.

Behind the unsecured section of guard rail were grey chippings.

Ms Milza said: “I thought that it’s got to be those.”

She said she was concerned about the unsecured guard rail because the Paxton Drive block of flats she lives in has a courtyard area directly below the old railway embankment. The flats themselves are around 30ft from the coastal park at the closest point.

Ms Milza said Mr Bennett reported the incident to one of the area’s police and community support officers.

She said the council sent someone out about the damaged window on the evening it was cracked but apparently he could not board or measure it up.

Nothing had been done as of the evening of Tuesday April 12. The council said on April 13 that it had made contact with Ms Milza about the damaged window.

The arena and coastal park – driven forward and largely funded by the council – are both open to the public, with major acts already having performed. There is access to the coastal park at either end.

Council leader Rob Stewart said:

“We very much sympathise with Anne and deplore the reckless throwing of stones at properties.”

He said snagging issues remained and would be addressed.

He added: “The site does benefit from new CCTV and ranger patrols to the area have increased.”

The council election candidates for Swansea’s new Waterfront ward  are Austin Elias, for the Conservatives, Labour’s Adam Gilbert, and Lib-Dem Sam Bennett.