Playgrounds coming on-stream

Local people are celebrating as work starts to create new play areas across Sheffield.

Work has started on upgrading six of the playgrounds at Stannington Park, Fox Glen, Hollinsend Park, Herdings Park, Denholme Close and Concord Park. A contract worth over £300,000 was awarded to Bernhards Landscapes who are planning to finish the sites by May 2011.

At Stannington, a new climbing frame called the ‘VIP’ and a zip line are being installed within the existing playground. The layout of this popular playground is being improved and favourite play pieces, such as the miniature train, are being kept but being repositioned to improve the layout.

Sheffield City Council, Sheffield LetsChange4Life programme and central government all contributed to fund the improvements at Stannington. The aim is to encourage children and local families to get more healthy, by exercising more and burning up the calories while having fun.

Children from the Action for Stannington Group helped designers from the City Council to select the play equipment and design the layout.

Danny Piermattei, Chair of Action for Stannington said: “We are really pleased that the improvements to the playground are now going ahead. It will provide a valuable asset for young people in this area and I am sure it will be very well used.”

Work is also underway create a new playground at Burngreave and improvements to Chapeltown, Angram Bank, Batemore and Rivelin are set to follow.

This means that by the school summer holidays this year 23 playgrounds will have been improved by the Council over the last two years at a cost of over £2 million.

Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed, the Council’s Cabinet member for Communities said: “I’m delighted that local children right across Sheffield can look forward to even more new and refurbished playgrounds in time for the Summer Holidays. From Chapeltown in the north to Batemoor in the south, lots of local communities will benefit from our programme all thanks to the Council swinging into action!”

Sheffield was awarded over £900,000 to provide challenging, exciting, accessible and innovative play equipment and spaces for children and young people. The programme was enhanced by an additional £500,000 through the Sheffield Let’s Change4Life programme under their Active Play initiative. This programme aims to dramatically reduce levels of childhood obesity within the city and the designs have been chosen to provide a physical challenge for children to help in the campaign to reduce the incidence of childhood obesity.

The remaining funding has come from the Big Lottery, Yorkshire Water, Landfill Tax Credits and Section 106 (planning gain income).

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