P L A Y carried out extensive consultations to discover what the local community wanted from the new play area.

• Questionnaires were hand delivered and collected from every house in the parish

• Young children were consulted through meetings at the village nursery and the primary school

• Older children were invited to give their views at a separate evening

All responses were carefully collated and considered prior to the design briefing for the play area.

Click on photos to enlarge
One of the consultations involving children discovered
some interesting results of their choices for a play area.

First equipment installed
Thanks to the generous donations so far, the first pieces of equipment to have been installed were for the infant play area, these being a 'Toddler Kingdom' unit and three 'Springies'

'Toddler Kingdom' under construction

'Toddler Kingdom': the finished job with the springies in front.

PLAY intends to install a more natural play area for the area following advice from the Forestry Commission.  This includes more natural equipment such as trees as well as including some of the more traditional play equipment.  See below for work in progress - 25 December 2008.

PLAY's stall at the Leigh Summer Show 2008, showing the latest plans for the play area

Meeting to make the next order of equipment
The next phase of development is under way following a meeting on 7 October 2008 of PLAY with Paul Cordell of the Forestry Commission and David Lock of Halceyon Play. 
 

Situation on 25 December 2008
A basketball hoop, identified for the older sector of children surveyed, has been erected and some new gates installed, a bird's nest swing and a zip wire have been constructed, and it is planned formally to open them in January 2009.  Picture shows work in progress, new gate, structure for the swings, and zip wire in background, on 20 December 2008

The existing climbing frame is being repaired and will be incorporated into the new play area. 

The Plough pub has kindly offered to sponsor a piece of equipment, fundraising for a truly innovative piece of play equipment surrounding the mound area in the playground design by the Forestry Commission.

Major fund raising for the final pieces of equipment is under way, seeking a figure of about £58,000.  A large number of PLAY and Leigh activities are continuing to raise funds as shown on Funds Raised So Far

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