Mystery over Hucknall park needles clean-up

A photo of the needles was posted on the Hucknall People’s Community Facebook page on Wednesday and drew a strong reaction from appalled locals.

However, neither Nottinghamshire Police, nor a clean-up team from Ashfield District Council could find any trace of them when they went to the park.

The mysterious disappearance of needles has led to suggestions the photo was an old one or not even taken in Titchfield Park.

But the woman who posted the picture, Grace Brown, said it was taken on Wednesday in the park.

She also posted that she had called the police on the 101 number to report it on the day and Nottinghamshire Police have confirmed that a call was received at 6.15pm on the night and officers did go to the park with the intention of cleaning the needles up.

A spokesman said: “When we get a call like this, where public safety is a concern, we always take it very seriously and respond to it.

"Our officers did go to the park on the night but were unable to find any sign of the needles, so someone must have cleaned them up – but we don’t know who.”

A spokesman for the council said: “We received a call about it last thing on the Wednesday but the caller was very vague about the location.

"It could be that they were reporting it from what they’d seen on the Facebook post and was trying to describe it from that, or the needles weren’t in the place in the park they thought.

"The council sent a team up there the next day and did a thorough sweep of the whole area but didn’t find anything so if they were cleaned up, it wasn’t by us.”

Coun Kier Morrison (Lab), who represents Hucknall South on the council, also posted on the original Facebook thread that he would get them cleaned up.

But when he went there himself to see where the needles were, he too found that they were already gone.