Clevedon families invited to have their say on seafront play area

11:00am - 20 September 2023
A photo of the children's play area at Salthouse Fields in Clevedon. The image shows a gated area with swings, a climbing frame and other play equipment.

North Somerset Council is inviting families to help shape its proposals to improve the children’s play area at Salthouse Fields in Clevedon in a consultation that opened at 11am today (Wednesday 20 September).

£150k in capital investment has been budgeted for this project at Salthouse Fields. This is part of an overarching capital investment of £260k being made by the council this year (2023-24) to improve four play areas, which also include:

  • Nailsea – Trendlewood
  • Portishead – The Vale
  • Weston-super-Mare – The Park.

Improvements at the four parks are set to include:

  • repairing or replacing safety surfacing,
  • replacing broken equipment and/or installing new equipment,
  • repainting existing equipment, and
  • repairing fencing where needed.

The consultation on the Salthouse Fields play area asks for families to comment on a range of play equipment which will appeal to all age ranges and abilities, including those children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

Last year (2022-23), the council invested £550k to improve and create new play areas for children across North Somerset. As well improving seven play areas across Clevedon (Cherry Avenue, Esmond Grove and Home Grounds), Nailsea (Scotch Horn/Millennium Park and Pound Lane), Portishead (Merlin Park) and Weston-super-Mare (Plumley Park South), the Improving Play Spaces Fund provided matched funding to enable projects at an additional 23 play areas.

Councillor Mike Solomon, North Somerset Council's executive member responsible for leisure, said: “I’m delighted to announce the second year of a five-year capital investment programme to deliver much-needed improvement in our play areas. Ongoing budget cuts meant that we’d seen little significant investment in our play areas, so while we made some fantastic progress last year, we’re still playing catch-up. We’ve assessed all our play areas and investment is being targeted where it’s needed most.

“I urge families that use the Salthouse Fields play area in Clevedon to take part in the consultation. We’re ready to listen and open to thoughts on our proposals – we want to make sure that our money is invested in the way that brings most benefit to local children and young people.”

To find out more and take part in the consultation by noon on Wednesday 1 November visit www.n-somerset.gov.uk/play23.

As the funding has been allocated this financial year (2023-24), all projects will be delivered by the end of March 2024.