VISITORS to the site of the 1992 Ebbw Vale Garden Festival say they are angry over the demolition of a children's playground and removal of key sculptures like the Japanese arch.

Joan Wilcox, 67, from Treowen, said: "I really am totally incensed by the state of it. I have been losing sleep thinking about it."

Mrs Wilcox says just before Christmas the children's playground was levelled at the site, which is next to Festival Park Shopping Centre.

"That was the last straw," she says.

"There was nothing wrong with it and it was well used."

One person distressed by the removal of the playground is four-year-old Chloe Lines, who lives nearby. Her father, solicitor Kevan Lines, 42, said Chloe loved the playground.

"It is a real shame it has gone," he said.

As secretary of the Friends of Festival Park, set up after the garden festival, he was instrumental in preserving the park.

"Once the shopping centre was built the management took over the park. It is still a nice park and the trees are maturing well.

"But that isn't enough. People liked this park because it was special. It had sculptures and landscaped gardens."

Festival Park management confirmed it was responsible for the upkeep of the site and employed six members of staff to do so.

But a spokesman said no one was available to comment on the concerns raised by visitors as the Argus went to press.