City staff to review sliding in Greater Sudbury

Morning North7:19Talking sliding hills at Sudbury city council

There's been a lot of displeasure in Sudbury at the city's decision to shut down a popular sliding hill. Sliding hills in the city were discussed at the last meeting of Greater Sudbury city council. We have some of that discussion for you.Sudbury city council took a run atthe debate over the safety of tobogganing Tuesday night.

But council only decided to discuss the issue further.

The debate was prompted by the closing of the slope at Queen's Athletic Field, where a serious injury took place last winter.

Responding to a question from city councillor Deb McIntosh last night, general manager of Community Development, Catherine Matheson admitted that staff should have acted shortly after the accident.

"The right process would have been to have done a review at the time," she said. "Probably through standing committee. So you are correct, it would be a proper process to do that."

That's what city staff will do now. The report is expected to be heard by council's community services committee sometime later this year.

Ward 1 city councillor Mark Signoretti represents the neighbourhoods surrounding Queen's Athletic Field and isn't against the closing of the hill.

"The Queen's Athletic Field was put in place for skating and not for tobogganing. And I firmly believe there are other sliding hills that the residents can use," said Signoretti.

He added that he takes his children sliding at Robinson playground, which is one of 15 other "unofficial" sliding hills the city has identified, which have been all deemed safe for tobogganing.

Check them out here: