Playground at King’s Cliffe Active to increase in size

A playground will double in size with more equipment thanks to a £90,000 grant.

King’s Cliffe Active already has play equipment for young children, two full-sized football pitches, an all-weather multi-use games area, floodlit tennis and netball courts, table tennis and a picnic area.

There is also a pump track for bikes and skateboards and an indoor gym.

Now a fresh donation of £90,400 from the Augean Community Fund, FCC Communities Fund, National Lottery Community Fund Awards for All and King’s Cliffe Parish Council will be added to fundraising to buy more play equipment for older children.

Since 2006 more than £2 million has been invested into the 12-acre site.

Guy Vary, who chairs the King’s Cliffe Active charity trustees, said their income from grants and hiring out facilities is spent on site maintenance and improvements, and that they were delighted to have secured £90,400 towards the project.

“We intend to use this to install a really exciting new range of play equipment, the first installation of this kind in the UK,” he added.

“But we want to continue fundraising in order to add to this with some more inclusive pieces of equipment.”

These will not only be for older children, but also for children with disabilities or additional needs.

“We have already applied learning from our pump track project by asking children directly what they want and their response was so motivating,” said Guy.

The charity is aiming to reach its fundraising target of £5,000 in the coming weeks. A fundraising page is at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/kcactiveplay.

King’s Cliffe Active is located at Kingsmead, Station Road and has free parking and a cafe.