New Playground for School Lane Field

Wednesday, 09 March 2011 18:16

Windlesham Parish Council (WPC) has started planning a new playground in School Lane field.  The exciting new addition to the field is being made possible by £35,000 from Charles Church who are the developers of Earlswood Park on the Notcutts nursery.  The money which has been planned for a while has recently been released to WPC.

The play area will be located between the climbing net and car park and will be approximately 17x10m in size.  This should provide enough space for one feature item and upto six other items of play equipment.

The Council is currently consulting with local groups to identify the target age group for the new playground and is focussing on either 2-5's or 6-12.  Tim Price, Clerk to the Council, said that this was because teenagers are already fairly well provided for at School Lane by the multi-use games area and they may soon have another item which is particularly attractive to that age.

Once the target age group has been decided by WPC, a set of suppliers will be given their brief and challenged to come up with their best designs for the money.  Mr Price said that he hoped that the playground would be ready by the autumn, but stressed that it would depend on decisions of the Council.

WPC is also considering the provision of an additional item, to be located on another part of the field, such as a 25 meter aerial runway or "death slide" as they are sometimes known.  Mr Price confessed that he'd not tried out an aerial runway recently but that he was looking forward to giving it a go if the new equipment is installed.  The details have not all been finalised and there is a possibility that a double runway will be installed.

When asked about the flooding around the current equipment, Mr Price said that he not not think it was much of a problem, but that if volunteers from the community came forward to offer their labour, it should be possible to add some drainage which would improve the situation.