Many have sincerely and genuinely welcomed this play park. I know many children & families will spend countless happy hours enjoying the facility. But it will always be a missed opportunity for me. This is not a fully inclusive play park and it should be. https://twitter.com/BelfastLive/status/1296166385375227904

@Chris_McClem is the mother of a disabled child, an engineer by profession and has first hand experience of advising other councils in NI to deliver exemplar fully inclusive play parks - facilities that are now a source of real pride for those council areas. She is an expert.

The experience of supporting @Chris_McClem as she lobbied for changes to the Hillsborough play park has opened my eyes to the issue of inclusive play and how limited the opportunities are for families with disabled children in NI. Councils/public bodies must commit to change this

I have many concerns with how @lisburnccc handled the issues Christine raised. The question now is ’how do we, and other councils do better?’ The wonderful @maemurrayfdn is working on common guidance for inclusive play which, I hope will be embraced by all Councils.

I know my council made genuine efforts to deliver an inclusiveness park. But this simply validates the view that expertise and understanding of inclusive play is lacking in NI. Public bodies cannot continue to invest large sums in destination play facilities and still fall short.

Finally thank you @Chris_McClem for opening my eyes to this issue. I‘m sorry we haven’t delivered the fully inclusive experience that children like Lilia deserve. I wish I could have done more. You are an inspirational lady and you are changing things for the better. Keep going x