Towns given grants for play areas

Six areas of Suffolk have been given £50,000 each to improve play areas for young people.

The projects have been chosen by Suffolk County Council and are the first of 23 which will be built or refurbished by 2011.

They include a new skate park for Felixstowe, a multi-use play area on a rundown site in Lowestoft and a wooden play area for Mildenhall Woods.

Play areas in Otley, Great Cornard and Bury St Edmunds will also be improved.

The government has given the county £1.1m to spend on improving play areas over the next three years under the Fairplay Playbuilder grant scheme.

'Exciting' projects

The grant given to the Felixstowe skate park project is the culmination of a 20-year campaign for a skate facility in the town.

Great Cornard was chosen to receive a grant after it was found to be an area of "play deprivation" where play areas were out-dated and under-used.

The rundown site in Morton Road, Lowestoft, will be transformed with a hard court play space and there are plans to hold drama, art, music and community events in the new space.

Otley's new play area will be built in the centre of the village after the idea received strong community support, the council said.

In Bury St Edmunds, a multi-use play area will be built in the Mildenhall Road estate.

Councillor Patricia O'Brien, the councillor with responsibility for children, schools and young people's services, said: "These leading projects met our criteria of being both exciting and innovative."