Elizabeth Road play park revamp to get underway in Seaton

Work is due to start on the much anticipated revamp of Elizabeth Road play park in Seaton during the week of 25 February, and the improvements will be those designed and voted for by local residents.

Seaton Town Council and East Devon District Council have been working closely together and with local people to make £42,000 worth of eagerly anticipated improvements to the Elizabeth Road play area.

The councils wrote a design brief for the play area following visits to Seaton Primary School and Seaton Community Festival, as well as many other local organisations, to find out what type of activities children wanted to be able to do in the play area. They found that climbing, swinging and spinning were the most popular activities, and these findings were given to three play companies who sent back their suggested designs for people to vote on.

Nearly 600 children and adults took part in Seaton Town Council’s public consultations last year to choose a winning design from the three final selected designs. The winning design (option A) got 52% of all the 584 votes and will include an Olympic basket swing, climbing walls and frames, spinning swings, a rota roka, and many more exciting features.

The funding for the revamp has come from developers who have built new homes in Seaton (Section 106 funding). Since 2008 EDDC has had the ground-breaking approach of distributing Section 106 money for sport and play through a Participatory Budgeting process using extensive community involvement.

It is likely that the whole play area will need to be closed off whilst the works take place for safety reasons. However, the footpath around the edge of the play area would remain open, providing access from Elizabeth Road through to the football field.

The work is expected to be completed within a month (weather permitting).

Cllr Steph Jones, East Devon District Council's Member Champion for Seaton said:“This will be a fantastic improvement on the current facility, and has been designed and chosen by the local children that are actually going to use it. A big thank you to all the people of Seaton that have been involved in designing and choosing the new equipment for the play area.

“This has been a great project that EDDC and Seaton Town Council have had the opportunity to work on together. Play is an essential part of every child’s life and this will mean the children of Seaton have a better place to play.”

Councillors Gaynor Sedgwick and Dawn Squire of the Youth and Rec Committee of Seaton Town Council commented:

“We are delighted that so many young people have voted choosing what they want for Seaton. When the children at Seaton Primary School were shown the winning design, the response was one of overwhelming enthusiasm. We look forward to working with young people on many future projects.”