Councillor Nan Walton – Crewe Town Mayor – opened the new park play area at Lansdowne Road in the Sydney area of Crewe yesterday. Crewe Town Council assigned £100,000 of its grant funding towards the project as part of its commitment to improving parks within the Crewe area. Due to community feedback, the Lansdowne Road site was identified as the priority site for the first year of investment of the ongoing Parks project.
The play area has been designed and installed by Crewe Town Council partners Ansa Environmental Services on behalf of Cheshire East Council, with the design and equipment selected from a number of competitive submissions.
As part of the design process, local residents were invited to take part in a community consultation exercise to provide feedback on the plans and responses were received from residents of all ages, including members of the Sydney Road Resident’s Association and pupils from local schools. Joan Christensen of the Resident’s Association commented that: “The park is looking good, it’s so nice to hear the children playing in the park from my garden.”
Residents requested the following features, which have all been incorporated into the final design:
- Inclusive equipment
- Toddler apparatus
- Teen equipment
- Accessibility
- Soft surfaces
The park has been ‘zoned’ into toddler and junior areas and also features a zip wire and a central picnic seating space. The age range for the park is 1 to 15 years of age. The park equipment will now be owned by Cheshire East Council and maintained by Ansa.
A ribbon was cut by the Crewe Town Mayor at the park yesterday afternoon as part of an informal opening, with representatives from the community and Ansa also in attendance. Cllr Walton said: “It is a pleasure to be able to formally announce that the park is now open for the community to use. The park looks brilliant and will give a lot of joy to children in the local area!”
The Town Council has committed a further £100,000 to play area improvements in 2022/3. It will be considering the next park for investment over the summer and giving priority to areas which are not currently in line for other funding. Once agreed, the Town Council will once again be asking the local community for their assistance in creating a wish list and design.
Cllr Jamie Messent (Chair of the Operations and Improvement Committee) commented: “Crewe Town Council is proud of the work that we have funded on the playground installation at Lansdowne Road Park. We know that the park is well-used by the local community and we hope that it will be a welcome addition to the local area and enhance the park space, encouraging our local community to spend time in the park. We would like to thank the residents who took the time to give their input during the consultation process – you said, we did! The installation was hampered at the start of the installation work because of a combination of bad weather and the impact of COVID, but we are delighted that the work has now been completed.”
Matt Smith (Technical Manager at Ansa Environmental Services) said: “It has been a fantastic opportunity to work in partnership with Crewe Town Council to redevelop such a key community facility and bring it back to life for local families to enjoy.”
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- The work in progress
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- The completed park
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- The zip wire
