A new play area to be built for the children of Bowerhill this year will be partly paid for by the extra council tax to be collected by Melksham Without Parish Council this year.

The multi-use games area on Hornchurch Road will include a fenced concrete sports pitch, with basketball nets and goal posts. Most of the cost of the play area has come from the developers behind the new houses on the estate.

Parish clerk Mary Jarvis said: “We have got about £32,000 of Section 106 money put aside, which we would have to apply for as a community benefit, but we have to make the sum up to £41,000, so we will put £5,000 of our precept towards it. The other sums we will get from our reserves and possibly from other projects, as this is a big youth project for our parish.

“Planning permission for the fencing will take at least four weeks, and I hope work can start as soon as we get that.”