Angry parents have branded a new play park a "danger zone" as they fear a child could be seriously hurt using the equipment.

Central Park in Park Farm, Ashford, opened in September following two months of renovation work.

The new site was part of a £400,000 project which saw new equipment and an outdoor gym installed.

But parents say the park is not fit for purpose, unsafe and requires urgent changes before someone gets injured.

Andrew Stott, a dad who lives in Park Farm, believes the site is dangerous and parents should not let their children play on it.

"The number one concern with this play park is the bridge," he said.

"There are huge gaps in between the steps and I feel like it is a real problem for children - they can slip through.

"There should also be netting up there as it is quite high - it must be seven or eight foot.

"I'm quite scared if a child falls through and puts themselves in danger.

"We need to look after our community and Park Farm is a really nice community.

"I just want to look after the children and make sure they are OK."

The father-of-three has two step-children and a daughter.

"I'm a little bit over-cautious about bringing them to the park because I don't want them to be playing on things like this," he said.

"It's really dangerous for them and needs to be rectified.

"The playground floor is also quite hard so a child could really hurt themselves if they fell from the bridge."

Mr Stott is calling for the bridge to be made safer by adding netting around it and closing the gaps between the stepping platforms.

He also says the segments of the slide are not connected properly and could cause an injury.

The 36-year-old posted about his concerns on Facebook and said he had a positive response from others in the area.

"I had some mums private message me telling me they were also concerned," he said.

"Some people also messaged me to thank me for raising the concerns so hopefully we can get things moving forward.

"I'm grateful to everyone who has supported my concerns and I think that collectively we can help to get it sorted out for our children.

"I have spoken to ABC about my concerns but they said the park was up to regulations.

"I don't personally see it is acceptable from the council and it needs to be rectified as soon as possible before the summer time."

One parent responding to Mr Stott's post says they let their children play at the park but only if they are careful.

"I’m glad someone else thinks it’s a danger zone," she said.

"It’s beautiful, yes, and most of the bits are cool, but there needs to be some casing I think to the bridge, and that big slide that’s just been turned to face the other way is a death trap," they wrote.

"Personal opinion, I don’t wrap my older two in cotton wool and they’ve gone up there many times now - I just tell them to focus but wouldn’t let the other two near it.

Another commented that signs could be put up in the area to state this equipment should only be used by older children.

The improvements came as part of a wider investment by Ashford Borough Council’s £1.1m 'play regeneration programme'.

Spearpoint Recreation Ground in Kennington and Rylands Road open space in Bockhanger have also been improved.

A spokesperson for Ashford Borough Council says the Central Park play area has been designed to meet the appropriate European safety standards for play equipment and surfacing.

"The company that produces and installs the equipment is one of the leading providers of this type of equipment in the country," they said.

"Both the company’s work and the actual equipment were inspected by an independent qualified register of play inspectors international inspector prior to it being opened to the general public.

"The inspector confirmed the equipment has been installed to the correct standards and certified as low risk.

"Our in-house grounds maintenance team will continue to regularly inspect the equipment to make sure it remains in good condition and will report and/or rectify any defects which may arise.

"As the play area has been assessed and approved by an independent specialist, it has been installed as per the manufacturer’s instructions and our grounds maintenance team inspect the equipment on a weekly basis for any required repairs, we do not believe there is a need to revise the design of this play area."