Youngsters work on their wildside

Young people aged 12 - 16 will soon be putting their hard hats on to create a new adventure playground at King George V playing fields in Ware as part of East Herts Council’s ‘Playing on the Wildside’ project

The council formed the Ware Wildside Steering Group to gather ideas from local young people to create an imaginative new play area. The group has been heavily involved in everything from the design to helping choose a contractor and will now be assisting with the playground’s construction.

Viv Jebson, Managing Director at Sutcliffe Play, the company appointed to lead the consultation, design and construction of the new playground said: “To be selected by the young people who will ultimately use the adventure playground is a great privilege. We’re now busy working with Ware’s youngsters to inform the design of the playground in a process that involves lots of interactive and fun activities.

“We recently held a consultation evening on the playing fields which was well attended by local young people and residents. We were able to use a double decker bus provided by Hertfordshire Care Trust as part of their Wheels Mobile Project, as a base for the consultation.

“This allowed us to display the proposed scheme and receive feedback from the local community. Young people were invited to model structures and Positive Playgrounds, a contractor involved in the project, worked with groups of young people to build willow structures.

“We came away from the consultation with a clear idea of what the young people and residents of Ware would like us to create.”

Executive member for community development, leisure and culture, Cllr Linda Haysey said: “It is really important that children of all ages have a safe place to play and the new play area will ensure that they have a place to do exactly that.“This project is unique in the sense that it recognises the fact that young people are best qualified to create an imaginative and exciting play area and gives them the chance to be a part of creating it.”

Construction will begin from mid-September and there will be opportunities for youngsters to get involved at after school and weekend sessions.The development is part of East Herts Council’s Big Lottery funded ‘Playing on the Wildside’ project which seeks to increase play opportunities for children and teenagers across the district and provide exciting new play areas.