A NEW play area has opened in Basildon as part of the Council’s Play Review programme.

The children’s, outside, play park, that was designed by Basildon residents, opened at Swan Mead Park, in Vange.

It features over 30 pieces of equipment which includes a zip wire, a giant slide, a rope playground, and a castle fortress.

It costed approximately £150,000 to build and create this new facility.

Craig Rimmer, Chairman of the Leisure and Environment Committee, said how pleased he was to be able to deliver this play area.

He said: "This is Your Council, Your Say, and that's why we've delivered a really high-quality play area chosen specifically by the parents who will be visiting it with their children.

“I'm really glad we've been able to deliver this facility for residents, it was great to visit and see how much joy it's already bringing, and to see how important a site this is for the local area.

“This is the first of eleven play areas scheduled to be completed over the next six months, which will kickstart our mission to ensure we have the best play facilities for our youngsters to enjoy wherever they live across the borough.”

The Play Review scheme is a ten-year programme of approximately £9 million investment into Basildon’s play areas, which aims to create the highest-quality play facilities for residents across borough.

This site was chosen for a new play area after the previous park equipment there had to be removed after serious fire damage.

Becky Walsh, from Basildon, took her four-and-nine-year-old grandchildren to the new play area.

She said: “The experience overall was good, it is our local park and so it is nice to now have something that we can walk too, that is also worth taking them too.

“It is a massive improvement on what was their before and the new play equipment is really good as there is something for all ages to enjoy.

“They really enjoyed it all, my granddaughter’s favourite with the zip wire and my grandsons was the pirate ship with the big slide, they loved it.”