Ribble Valley Play Areas In A Spin After £750,000 Cash Boost

The funds are topping off existing capital allocations aimed at putting the borough’s play areas in tip-top condition within two years.

Work at Salthill play area in Clitheroe has been completed, while installation work is underway at Hawthorne Place play area in Clitheroe and John Smith’s play area in Longridge has been stripped out pending the start of a three-week refurbishment scheduled to start shortly.

The Hawthorne Place play area will feature a variety of play experiences for up to 30 users aged one to 14, including an agility course, ball zone and family seating area with sensory planters.

The John Smith’s play area will boast a host of features for 70 users aged up to eight, many of them accessible to toddlers and wheelchair-users, including a pirate ship, multi-play station with several access points and six-sided jumper, along with new surfacing.

The play area cash boost is part of a £6.7million bonanza for sports, leisure and recreation facilities in Ribble Valley Borough Council’s biggest and most ambitious capital programme since it was formed in 1974.

Councillors unanimously agreed to slash proposed timetables for spending an estimated £6.7million on capital projects from five years to just two. 

As well as £3million for an upgrade to Ribblesdale Swimming Pool, £1.7million for a raft of new features at Clitheroe Castle, £550,000 for improvements to the castle keep and £1.45million for all-weather sports pitches at a site to be confirmed, every one of the borough’s 18 council-owned play areas will receive improvements and in some cases, such as Salthill in Clitheroe and John Smith’s in Longridge, a complete revamp, while a whole new play area will be built at Edisford riverbank next year.

Stuart Hirst, chairman of Ribble Valley Borough Council’s community services committee, said:

“Given uncertainty around the future of local government we want to make sure that our resources are spent locally.

 

“So, we have decided to be ambitious with our capital programme, by reducing five-year schedules to two and bringing forward some schemes already approved in principle.

 

“Our reserves have been modestly accrued over many years and, whatever the future holds for Ribble Valley, councillors across the chamber are united in their view that they be spent entirely for the benefit of the borough’s current and future residents.

 

“And what better way to do that than to invest in the borough’s play areas, each and every one of them, for our children to enjoy for years to come.”