Local Chapeltown Lib Dems with Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed and members of Friends of Chapeltown Park: (l-r) Cllr Vic Bowden, Graham Oxley, Chair of Friends of Chapeltown Park, Cllr Colin Taylor, Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed, John Bowden, and Doris Denton, Secretary of Friends of Chapeltown Park.
Liberal Democrats on Sheffield City Council have announced that plans to install new playground equipment at 12 sites across Sheffield will go ahead.
The plans had been under threat due to ‘Playbuilder’ budget reductions from Government. Last week the Government announced that Sheffield would not receive the full £600,000 originally allocated. However, Liberal Democrat councillors have stepped in with extra Council investment.
As the overall project included investment from other sources, the total amount spent on equipment at the 12 sites will be well over £1m.
Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed, Liberal Democrat Cabinet member for Communities, said:
“We know just how important these projects are to local communities and the friends of parks groups, who have been involved in drawing up the plans. That’s why Liberal Democrats have stepped in to ensure that all the projects will go ahead.
“We had been working on the basis that the vast majority of the Government money would go given the dire state of the national finances left by Labour. Therefore I’m delighted that we have secured the majority of the original funding and local children and families can now look forward to new play equipment at 12 locations across Sheffield thanks to the Lib Dems.”
The 12 sites are Hollinsend Park, Denholme Close, Stannington Park, Herdings Park, Fox Glen, Angram Bank, Chapeltown Park, Woolley Woods, Rivelin Valley, Lowfield, Burngreave Rec and Batemoor. They will all be completed by April 2011.
Cllr Victoria Bowden, Liberal Democrat councillor for the Chapeltown area which will benefit from new equipment, said:
“Liberal Democrat councillors have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the project at Chapeltown Park will go ahead. Our local park has been terribly neglected over the years thanks to Labour’s ‘favoured areas’ policy when they ran the Council. So we were keen that Chapeltown didn’t miss out. I’m delighted that our hard work has paid off.”
Last year the Liberal Democrat Council installed new playground equipment at 11 other sites, making a total of 23 sites that will have new playground equipment by the end of the project.
Sites completed last year include Beaver Hill, Rolling Acres, Richmond Park, Charnock Rec, Fox Hill, Millhouses, Hillsborough, Darnall, Phillimore, Dorset St and Beechwood Road.
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