Play in Malmesbury switches on to future (From This Is Wiltshire)

Play in Malmesbury switches on to future

3:22pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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Children living in Malmesbury may get state-of-the-art interactive play equipment after £30,000 was made available to revamp St Aldhelm’s Mead play area.

Councillors are keen to hear from people about how the funding should be spent and have already investigated some possibilities.

One of them is an electronic interactive £30,000 i.play where children have to listen to commands and respond by pushing, pressing, twisting or stamping on various switches in sequence.

The apparatus then provides a score which can be entered online in national league tables so children will be able to compete with others throughout the country.

Up to six people can play on it at any one time.

Coun Simon Killane said the novelty value of the equipment may help get young people to be more physically active and tackle childhood obesity.

He said: “This would be a really exciting piece of kit to have in the park.

“It’s such a unique piece of play equipment I think it would prove really popular.

“Getting young people to be active is so important and this would provide something a bit different from what they are used to.”

Coun Killane and Coun Steve Cox, chairman of the town council’s leisure and youth committee, are consulting residents to find out whether there is demand for such equipment.

Coun Killane said: “We want people to get in touch and tell us what they want.

“We don’t want to go off spending the money on something that isn’t wanted.”

Of the £30,000, £25,000 has been made available through legal agreements with property developers and £5,000 from Wiltshire Council’s Play Builder fund.

Other ideas under consideration for spending the £30,000 are revamping the football pitch and creating a multi-use games area.

Coun Killane said: “Malmesbury doesn’t have an all-weather facility for playing different sports.

“It would be great to have a place where people could play tennis, football and basketball, for example, in one location.

“This would likely cost between £50,000 and £100,000 so we’d have to get some extra funding.

“But there is £2.8 million available in the Performance Reward Grant Scheme through the area boards so I’m hoping as a town council we can make a bid for some of that.”

Coun Killane and Coun Cox can be contacted through the town hall.