A new play area in Pontefract Park is now open for the district’s young residents to enjoy.
Wakefield Council has invested £450,000, to create a stunning site that offers 30 new play items for children of all abilities and ages to come for adventure and thrills.
The new play area reflects Pontefract’s heritage, as a town with a racecourse and castle, with a fairy tale theme.
Younger children can go on a dragon hunt, make potions, follow a trail to a ‘gingerbread house’ style unit or ride a horse to the stable’s playhouse.
Older children can play at the ‘castle on the hill’ with its embankment slide, cableway and a ‘giant’s unit’ that is almost 9 metres tall – equivalent to the height of two stacked double-decker buses.
There is a wheelchair-friendly roundabout, a ‘you and me’ swing seat, and to spark the imagination a storyteller’s circle for a spot of quiet reading and the chance to take story time outside.
A spokesperson for Wakefield Council said; “The makeover of the play area is the latest project we have completed, as part of our commitment to spend £1.8m on parks across the district.
“We have already transformed the play area in Thornes Park which reopened at the end of 2022.”
Work has begun on a new play area in Queens Park in Castleford and is expected to be completed in April.
Improvements to play facilities in Vale Head Park in Hemsworth and Haw Hill Park in Normanton are also planned this year.
Gary Blenkinsop, Service Director for Environment, Street Scene, and Climate Change, said: “I am pleased to see the new play area open in time for the Easter holidays. It is a fantastic place to visit and keeps children and young people busy.
“We have listened to our residents, who responded to the consultation we undertook before work began on the site. They asked for better equipment and more for children with disabilities and that is what we have done.”
