On Sunday 17th June hundreds of families attend the Acomb Green Playground Grand Opening.
The Lord Mayor or York, Cllr Keith Hyman officially opened the playground on Sunday 17th June with the help of 4 year old Georgie Douglas. Georgie wrote a letter to the Council to say thank you to everyone for building a lovely new play park.
The Friends of Acomb Green are responsible for the new playground after acquiring a grant of £50,000 from the BIG Lottery Fund, Community Spaces Programme, managed by Groundwork UK.
This has given Acomb Green an exciting new playground and many park benches.
The playground experienced a huge overhaul with the tired-looking play equipment being replaced with 2 stimulating wooden climbing frames, 3 different types of swings, a larger roundabout and picnic tables.
“The new playground is fantastic, there’s so much great stuff for the kids, and it’s so much better than the old one!” remarked Alison, a local resident and mother of two.
Approximately 500 children and adults attended the event which featured free ice cream for kids, free cake for adults and free squash, as well as the new playground which was completed only 3 days earlier.
Judith Johnston, from the Friends of Acomb Green said “I can’t believe so many people turned up, I thought we’d be really lucky if 200 people came”.
At the opening the Friends extended their thanks to a number of people and groups, including:
• The BIG Lottery Fund, Community Spaces Programme managed by Groundwork UK for providing the much needed funds and for their continual support,
• The Parks and Open Spaces Team, Play Team, and Conservation Team at the Council for playing a major role in helping deliver the playground,
• Steve Danby and the Playscheme team who designed and built the new playground,
• Class 1 pupils of Carr Infant School and Year 7 Art pupils at York High School for their design input into the new log carvings, which will be displayed in a few weeks,
• And to Katlyn Rae from Carr Junior School for designing the colourful grand opening poster.
The Friends hope the playground will become a much loved and cared for facility for many generations of Acomb families.