Children have been locked out of a communal garden in York's only private square.

Denise Magson with her daughter, India, and nephew Alex by the locked gates to the garden area in St Paul's Square

Mum Denise Magson, who took her six-year-old daughter India to play in gardens at Holgate's St Paul's Square, was shocked to find the gates shut and locked.

Notices said they were being kept for the use of 'resident key-holders only'.

Mrs Magson, who lives in Holgate Bridge Gardens, said she had learned residents of the exclusive square, who jointly own the gardens, had voted to keep them private.

She said: "I think it's an absolute disgrace. It's snobbery: just sheer snobbery. They just want that immaculate square to themselves. But where do the children go?

"They just think they don't wants kids making noise. The children used to go there after school, look at the wildlife, enjoy the sunshine. But now where do we go?

"They've got no community spirit. Perhaps they feel they are not part of this community, but an elite set who look down from their 'ivory towers' on to an immaculate but lifeless square."

Mrs Magson said the next nearest park was West Bank Park - but to get there, children had to cross two major roads.

There are plans for a children's play area at the back of Upper St Paul's Terrace. Work is expected to begin later this year but at the moment it is just a basketball court.

Mrs Magson conceded there may have been a few problems with vandalism late at night in St Paul's Square.

Christine Bainton, whose house in Holgate Road backs on to the square, said: "It is quite acceptable for the residents to lock the gates at night when it is dark to ensure that it is secure, but not during the day."

Nigel Stubbs, the chairman of the square's residents' association, said the decision to close the garden had been a difficult one.

"It's been shut after great heart-searching, and we didn't want to upset the community."

The residents had voted to close off the garden because of increasing vandalism, he said.

"It did become the haunt of one or two undesirables. The police suggested we locked it at night in October."

Since then there had been a great reduction in vandalism, but the lighter nights meant that closing it at night was no longer practical, so residents had voted to keep the gate closed and each have keys to open it.

A key had been given to St Paul's Nursery, inside the square, and one had also been given to St Paul's CE Primary School nearby.

The experiment would be reviewed at the association's next annual meeting or before then if needed.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.