Published: Wednesday 17th November 2021 | 9.32am
Work on safety surfacing has started in play areas across the District, as the Council invests £50k in repairs.
All of the Council's play equipment is surrounded by safety surfacing, which is either bark, or a material called wet pour. The safety surfacing offers a free draining, flexible surface, that is also impact absorbing. However, over time it can shrink away from its edging, leaving gaps where weeds can grow, or it can become a trip hazard, if it lifts above the adjacent surfacing due to the impact of the weather.
Overall, the Council is improving a third of its total play areas, with some 900 linear metres of wet pour edging and 130 m2 of continuous wet pour surfacing.
Councillor Adrienne Fitzgerald, Portfolio Leader for Housing, Heritage and Leisure said: “I am very pleased that the Council has started a programme of surface improvements to the Council owned play areas across the District. There have been some cases of vandals removing, pulling up corners or even large sheets of wet pour surfacing. This is very irresponsible and unfortunately has led to the Council having to remove some play equipment, where it cannot ensure the protection from the surfacing. In turn, this has also impacted on young people’s enjoyment of some of our play areas and resulted in a number of complaints relating to the vandalism.”
The works across the District are set to be completed by the end of November 2021.