Work starts on Exmouth play site

Exmouth children will have a new play area to look forward to in the New Year as work has begun on £70,000 worth of improvements to the play site at Imperial Recreation Ground.

Hundreds of local children and young people have been involved in the plans for the site and have even developed the designs and equipment they wanted to see there. And to make the process strictly democratic, the youngsters, from Exeter Road and Marpool Primary Schools, Exmouth Community College and Exmouth Children’s Centre were given a choice of three designs and had the opportunity to vote for their favourite one.

The process has been led by East Devon District Council and Exmouth Town Council who have been working closely to spend a total of £118,000 on improvements to Phear Park and Imperial Recreation Ground play areas. Around £48,000 worth of work will start at Phear Park, weather permitting, once the work at the Imperial Recreation Ground is completed.

Funding for the play areas has come from Section 106 legal agreements with a number of developers who have built housing in the Exmouth Town Council area. East Devon District Council chooses to involve the community in how it spends this money to ensure that it meets the needs of the community.

Councillor Iain Chubb, East Devon District Council’s Cabinet Member for the Environment said: “I would like to thank all the children and young people in the town who have given their views on the type of equipment they wanted and then voted on the resulting designs.

“As the young people are the ones who use these play areas, we at East Devon District Council know how important it is that they get what they want. As a council, we choose to involve the community in spending this money, which the vast majority of other local authorities don’t. It’s great that it is used to fund what the community really wants.”

Work at the imperial Recreation Ground started at the end of last month and is expected to be completed before the New Year.