Youths have been getting the blame for the damage in Queensgate Park – but the council has confirmed it was not totally their fault.

Meanwhile, a group of acrobatic youngsters feel they are being wrongly victimised for causing problems at local parks.

The new park opened just two weeks ago and immediately there were complaints that older children were taking over and fears that vandals could easily strike because of a lack of CCTV cameras.

Within a week, a rotating three metre-high web climber, for use by junior school age children, disappeared.

Although many people have assumed the equipment had to be removed because it had been vandalised, that was not the case.

A spokesman for East Riding of Yorkshire Council said: "The large piece of equipment removed from Queensgate play area was incorrectly installed and not rotating properly.

"Some youths broke bars trying to rotate it but it would have been removed anyway.

"It will now be repaired and put back properly."

The design of the park has been praised by almost everyone but allowing all age groups a chance to use the facilities is proving tricky.

Nine-year-old Olivia Brodie wrote to the Free Press to say: "I have been to visit the new Queensgate Park but all the teenagers were taking over.

"Me and my brother Lloyd only got to go on one little thing. I think you should be under a certain age to go in.

"Us children just want to play on the new equipment but other people are destroying it.

"I want to find a way of sorting this problem out. We have a little park near us which we loved but people started taking things from it, swings, benches, the fence. Now there is hardly anything left.

"Is this going to happen to every new park in this town?"

Councillors and parents have asked for CCTV cameras to cover the £100,000 park, which was funded by East Riding council and money given by housing developers who did not include parks on their new estates.

But the council spokesman added: "There is no evidence of bottles, broken glass or graffiti at the site. Putting in CCTV at sites like play areas would be prohibitively expensive. There is lighting from nearby streets and, of course, policing."

A group of friends who regularly meet in Queensgate Park to practice the sport of parkour – or free running, a form of street acrobatics – feel they are being wrongly blamed for causing damage and nuisance.

One of the friends, Josh Smith, 16, said: "We get told off for hanging around street corners, we get criticised for staying in and playing video games, then we go out and do something good and physical and we get told off for that too.

"People just assume that we want to cause trouble but we don't."