Work is set to start on a new, £135,000 refurbishment of a play area and sports facilities in Littlemore.
The site at Oxford Road Recreation Ground will accompany the existing football pitch and basketball hoop. Littlemore Parish Council has £50,000 of funding from WREN (Waste Recycling Environmental) to develop the facility.
The council has also put in £5,000 of its own money, and £80,000 from Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council's Pathfinder fund. The work is expected to take 10 weeks to complete.
Anne Mogridge, chair of Littlemore Parish Council, said: “The parish council have put a lot of time and effort into securing the funding for this scheme from WREN, so it is a real relief to see work is finally progressing. The new facilities will be a huge benefit to local children and young people and for families to enjoy for many years to come.”
Councillor John Tanner, parish and city ward member for Littlemore, said: “Everyone has worked together and so hard for this. I’m really pleased to see the new playground and sports area begin to take shape at Oxford Road. The next step is to start raising funds to do something similar for the Herschel Crescent recreation ground.”
The new play area will see almost all of the existing equipment replaced with new toddler swings, a new basket swing, a toddler trim trail, and a net roundabout. The old air raid shelter, which is already used by playing children, will have an embankment slide added and sleepers installed on it.
There will also be some more adventurous play equipment installed outside the existing fenced off play area for older children to use which will include a new zip wire, a large climbing unit and a Titan five way swing.
