UPDATE Just before Christmas: Just to keep you all in the picture re the progress of the Play Park. Howard and I had a meeting this morning with the Dorset Council Play Planners to show them the work done so far and to hear their recommendations on the best way forward and what we need to do to further prepare the ground for the equipment. Reverting to my military style and knowledge… This will be a three phase operation which will run concurrently. Phase 1 - Preparing the Ground: 1. Tree Stumps - Pull up the three tree stumps - it was advised that the trees will continue to grow (apparently sycamores grow like weeds and never die) so will not be able to be used in any great way, therefore it will be better to pull them up and make best use of the space. If anyone has any ideas, equipment, skills in this area please could they let me know? 2. Scrap Metal - Get rid of the scrap metal - I think Lee has volunteered to sort this out 3. Hardcore - Apparently we don’t need hardcore for the play park as it makes the ground too hard a surface, plus makes it more difficult to put the equipment in when the time comes. However if we redistribute the stuff we’ve got there to infill the bigger holes we can then cover it with enough top soil. To that end we will need some sort of heavy equipment to shove the hardcore around the park and redistribute it where necessary. - Again if anyone has the equipment or time to do this please can you let me know? 4. Top Soil - Cover the area with a load of top soil - Neil has kindly offered to give us some top soil in the early new year - thanks Neil Phase 2 - Wood Chip and Logs: 1. Wood Chip - Under advice from EDDC Play Park Planners - they strongly recommend the wood chip and assure us that it will not degrade with the leaves falling from the trees. Alternatives such as Play matting/grass does not have any longevity and although cheaper will not last and will harden as time goes on. They didn’t think rubber chips would be suitable for the area, and the soft rubber urban stuff would be far outside our budget and not in keeping with the area. Also leaving it just to grass would have other problems such as getting very muddy, needing be mowed regularly and keeping the weeds down will be time consuming. To that end we will take the advice from EDDC and plan on using the wood chip Once we have a cost we will know how much money we have left to play with for play equipment. John Raymond had offered to ask a contact for details and a quotation. 2. Boundary Logs - We will need approximately 80m of 300mm width timber to bound the revetments around the park. - Neil again has said he might be able to get these for us. Phase 3 - Design: 1. Level Survey - Do a level survey - As the land slopes away a little we may need to terrace it on a couple of levels - Howard has volunteered to do this. 2. Design - Currently Sarah and myself have been working on the proposed equipment for the park with our limited budget. We have prioritised the equipment that we think is necessary and what is ’nice to have’. The equipment is incredibly expensive so we would like to get it absolutely right for as many children as possible to enjoy. EDDC recommended that we would be better buying the ‘mechanical things from a manufacturer such as spinning bowls, swings and see saws, however, to save costs we might be better designing and building our own bespoke tower/climbing frames/nets/fireman’s pole/slide contraption. If anyone out there feels that they have the creative skills and time to develop such a contraption which is play park compliant (Justin? Damon?) I have loads of brochures and technical data available. If not we will have to buy a standard climbing frame and separate slide unit. Howard has kindly been working on the technical drawings and once we have a draft I will forward it on to you all. 3. Play Park Inspection - Once we have all agreed the equipment and have the drawings we will need to approach the Play Park Inspection Team in Ferndown to look over our plans to ratify them - this will be at a cost of £395.00 On a very positive note EDDC have pledged us another £2000 towards the costs which will be very useful and brings our total to around £20K. Finally, on the morning of 28th December Karen, Charlie and myself have organised a Family Bike Ride around the area to raise funds for the play park. It’ll be £5.00 per head starting at the Club car park and arriving back at the Club for mulled wine and minced pies. A flyer will be following shortly. All the best Vicky
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 10:10:36 +0000
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