£30k agreed for new equipment at Southport Playground

Money has been made available through Sefton Council’s Capital Programme for new play equipment at a site in Southport.

A sum of £30K has been agreed with Cllr Ian Moncur, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, for new playground equipment at Ovington Drive, Kew.

In August, following some safety concerns, Sefton Council reluctantly took the decision to close the facility and decommission the old equipment, which was done with Cabinet Member approval and ward councillors notified.

Money has been made available and designs are being drawn up involving the local community to replace the outdated equipment which had rapidly deteriorated and been removed. Once finalised, it is hoped the new play area will open in spring, 2018.

Cllr Ian Moncur, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, said:

“Earlier this year we made the difficult decision to decommission the play area on safety grounds.

“As a result of community reaction to the closure and representations made to the Leader of the Council and myself, I rapidly exercised my discretion to identify funding from within the existing parks budget to prevent the closure.

“We are currently working with the local community on designs for the play area, and once complete and agreed, we will start work on the site.

“Discussions are ongoing on a similar scheme relating to Smithy Green in Formby and as soon as we have further details about this, we will highlight them through our many communication channels.”

Directors make plain – NO Council cash yet allocated for playgrounds