CHILDREN in Heddington finally have a place to play after a £40,000 fundraising campaign by a group of mums to rebuild the dilapidated play area behind the primary school.

Pennies for Play, headed by Francesca Ovens, Gemma Brown and Lucy Tyler, decided to raise the money back in October following the parish council's decision to remove the playground, which had fallen into disrepair.

The group reached their target back in March and planned to rebuild the old play area behind Heddington Primary School before the May half term.

Mrs Tyler said: “We are absolutely over the moon and more than happy. We never imagined that we would do it so quickly.

“They have just taken all the safety fencing down. It looks absolutely great and all of us involved are walking around with big smiles on our faces.

“This is the only playground in Heddington and the one we previously had was a very old structure which we had inherited from the school.

“There are ten mums on the committee behind setting up the playground and we all worked tirelessly to make sure this went ahead.”

The money was raised through a series of grants as well as an 87 lot auction held at The Ivy Inn on March 18, which raised just over £7,000.

The campaign for the revamped playground also drew support from MP James Gray, who offered a personally conducted tour through Westminster.

The money gained in the auction was added to by three grants; The National Lottery Awards for All Grant Scheme, Viridor Credits Main Grants Scheme and the Calne Area Board.

“We were absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of support we have received and would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us,” she added.

“The children now have a great place to play. We wanted to make it as inclusive as we possibly could.

“It is much better to what was there before and children between two to 14 can play on it. There are also facilities for children with disabilities.

“We did not want to leave anyone out of it and wanted it to be for the whole community to come and feel that it is theirs.

“We have already had a little go on it and I got the head teacher of Heddington Primary School on the zip wire and might have a little go myself.”