STRATFORD Recreation Ground is getting a £250,000 makeover after plans for a splash pad dried up.
Stratford District Council’s Cabinet decided the £150,000 previously allocated for the splash pad at the rec’s play area should be repurposed and used instead for the installation of additional water features and the refurbishment of the paddling pool.
A further £100,000 was also allocated to replace the play equipment and enhance the sandpit to make it more accessible.
A splash pad is a recreation area, often in a public park, designed for water play but with little or no standing water.
Councillors proposed the installation of a splash pad back in April but changed their minds after the results of a budget consultation showed more than a third of residents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with its installation – the third lowest agreement score of all the proposals.
Technical surveys carried out by officers also indicated that a splash pad could not be installed next to the paddling pool due to the area of the land available, the presence of trees and the close proximity of the sand pit.
It was therefore decided that to meet the original proposal to deliver an enhanced play and water experience, the paddling pool area should be renovated, new water features installed and the existing play equipment replaced instead.
The cost of this is £250,000, so a further £100,000 will have to be stumped up.
Coun Lorraine Grocott, putting forward the proposal, said:”Throughout the district, the council control very few play areas – they have either been handed out to local councils or are in private ownership, so the recreation ground is very much at the forefront now of the facilities that we provide and this is obviously to visitors and also to local families.
“The play area itself, I know from living in Bridgetown, lots of families use it. It is also a visitor attraction. I’m not kidding myself that visitors will come from China to go digging around in the sandpit but definitely day trippers do come through and make good use of the facilities.”
The aim is to complete the improvements by April next year.
