PLAY project (Playground for Litton's Active Youth) in Buxton, opens its doors.

Julie Nash, local mum involved in the P.L.A.Y project, has written in to share how their launch event went over the weekend. Julie’s becoming a bit of a regular blogger for us as she wrote to us to give us a progress update back in February – it’s so exciting to see the finished product!

Julie writes:
“After three years of hard work and labour it was fantastic to see the first child go down that slide at the grand opening of the Litton Playground & Sensory Garden. The project, which was primarily funded through Community Spaces, has seen a group of local mum’s come together to create a universal space for play, relaxation, stimulation and interaction.

We groaned with frustration on the morning of the launch when we opened our doors to rain, rain and more rain forecast.  We had organised a hog roast, bbq, champagne launch and drinks - we were not about to be put off by getting a bit damp!  Our hog-roast guys (Trotters Independent Caterers from Eyam!) were there at 5am, setting up their roasting equipment, closely followed at 7am by us, with cups of tea and toast for them, and a quick re-think by us of just how we were going to keep everyone dry! 

We desperately needed more shelter up at the playground itself and also on the village green, so it was all hands on deck to source some gazebos.

Crisis sorted, we made sure our bar staff were prepped and ready, balloons were installed in the Playground and Village Hall, kids word-search printed, buns baked, and then it was off home for a quick change in time for our opening ceremony at 2pm.

We had a tremendous turn-out, even though the weather was lousy.  The ceremony was opened by our fantastic speaker Ian, who gave an account of the ‘story so far…’ and thanked everyone who had helped in seeing the project to it’s fruition. Gifts were presented to those who had gone ‘above and beyond’ the call of duty. 

The ribbon was cut by our Village children and the opening toasted with glasses of champagne, as the children (& adults) rushed into the playground to try out each and every piece of new equipment and sit and admire the sensory garden. This was followed by a hog-roast & bbq on the Village Green – the rain truly didn’t stop P.L.A.Y. on our special day!

We would like to thank everyone who has helped in this project, from all at Groundwork UK, to Janice our Facilitator, Phil our unofficial ‘Project Manager’, Jackie our Landscape Architect, Pam & Sue our garden ladies and many more.  I personally, would like to thank, with all my heart, Bridget, Karen, Jane and Trish, who have really made a difference to the future of Litton Village – it’s been a pleasure working with you ladies - we got there in the end!”

Julie Nash

Above: New play equipment for Litton in Derbyshire

P.L.A.Y (Playground for Littons’ Active Youth) have been awarded £49,839 from the Community Spaces programme. Here’s Julie Nash’s story so far on the group’s progress with creating a new play facility…

P.L.A.Y is a small committee of mums, who, in response to the Litton Parish Plan, joined together in July 2007 to raise funds for a new playground.

Two old swings were all the play facilities Litton had, so in addition to a new playground, we also hoped to create a small sensory garden to make it usable by all.

We began by getting together quotes from playground companies, to ascertain how much the project was going to cost. Once we knew our target amount, we started local fundraising and held a Race Night (made £1,351) and a Safari Supper (£425) just to name a few.

We have raised over £10,000 locally to date, and gained grants from the Bingham Trust and D.D.D.C. With advice from Derbyshire Dales CVS, we applied to the Changing Spaces/Community Spaces programme.

We were thrilled to get through the first Stage of the application, and grateful to meet with Janice Burley, our Facilitator, whose help, guidance and moral support has been a lifeline through the whole of the second stage application.

It took us the best part of 6 months to complete the form correctly and, to our delight, we were notified in October ‘09 that we had been awarded the full amount.

Groundworks started in Dec ‘09, and the top junior level is almost complete with the toddler area due to be completed in January. The horrendous weather we have had recently hasn’t helped and we have constantly had to review the work and time-schedules we had in place.

Work is progressing on the sensory garden, which is being installed by a local landscaper, with our launch event scheduled for the end of March.

On a personal note, I am proud to have been actively involved in this project. It hasn’t been easy, but each active member of the team has their own individual skills, which have all helped us to achieve our goal.

Julie Nash
P.L.A.Y