'Unsafe' Newbury playground at Fifth Road to get facelift

Newbury’s Fifth Road playground is in line for a £17.5 k facelift - to make it safe.

The town council blocked a move to seal it off, and hope to get their recommendation to spend the cash to re-bark the ground approved in October.

Vice chair the Community Services Committee, Martha Vickers (Lib Dem: Westfield) said: “We need to keep our parks safe and unless we invest in them we are over spent on parks budget due to wear and tear. We don’t want to have to close them but have concerns over health and safety.

“Maybe an accident would never happen, but how would we feel if a child banged his or her head or got hurt? We must do something,”

The town council is responsible for the upkeep of parks and playgrounds. Wear and tear is blamed for the need to upgrade all the town’s play facilities.

“They are very well used,” said Roger Hunneman (Lib Dem: Wash Common).

“The interim measure at Fifth Road is to put more bark in so people can still use the facility until we can get round to greater investments in our playgrounds.

“We are looking for longer term financial arrangements. It has always been done on short term basis. We need to develop a sinking fund rather than sticking a plaster over the problem.”