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£100,000 refurbishment works start next week at play area in Woodthorpe.

Date Posted: 1:40 PM on Fri, 8 January 2021

The Breck Hill Park in Woodthorpe will be improved thanks to funding from FCC Communities Foundation, a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community, conservation and heritage projects from funds donated by waste and resource management company FCC Environment through the Landfill Communities Fund. FCC Communities Foundation will be providing a grant total of £98,000.

Works to the new play area will begin on Monday 11 January and are expected to be completed in March 2021, the play area will be closed during this period while works are carried out.

The park will have over 20 new pieces of equipment including balance beams, Olympic basket swings, a wheelchair accessible roundabout, climbing net, multi play unit and more. As well as the play facilities themselves, tables and chairs, cycle stands and a wildflower area also form part of the works.

The funding bid was made jointly by Gedling Borough Council and the Friends of Breck Hill Park, a local residents’ community group who undertook community consultation and identified a strong community need for the project.

Cheryl Raynor, FCC Community Foundations local grant manager said;

“We are delighted to be supporting Gedling Borough Council and the Friends of Group to bring this project to fruition. Both the need for the project, and the benefit to the local community were well evidenced and we very much look forward to work starting on site shortly.”

Catherine Honey, the Chair of Friends of Breck Hill Park said;

“Breck Hill Park has really come in to its own over the last year during the Covid-19 restrictions with lots of people enjoying the open space. The old playground was outdated and neglected. This much needed new play area will encourage even more local residents to enjoy the park and be active.

Thank you again to FCC and also Gedling Borough Council for their support. We can’t wait to see local families and children enjoying the brand new play area.

Portfolio Holder for Environment, Councillor Peter Barnes said;

“We take great pride in our parks and open spaces so it’s fantastic to see yet another one of our facilities receive this funding so we can continue to offer first class play facilities like this for our residents.

We’ve worked alongside The Friends of Breck Hill Park group, to help secure this funding and make these improvements a reality.

I’d like to thank everyone involved for helping us get to this stage, and another huge thank you to FCC for providing funding on yet another project, I can’t wait to see what our residents think when the works are completed.”

For more information about FCC Communities Foundation funding contact Cheryl Raynor at cheryl.raynor@fcccommunitiesfoundation.org.uk or visit www.fcccommunitiesfoundation.org.uk