New Playground officially opened

Three years of planning and fundraising has resulted in the official opening of the new play area on the Lower Swaines recreation ground in Epping.

The equipment - on three sites on the Epping Town Councilmanaged recreation ground - has been funded thanks to the efforts of Epping Playground Association which raised £176,000.

Town Mayor councillor Barbara Scruton, who cut the ribbon to officially open the play area on Saturday, said: "The initial design was for an all-inclusive playground that children from 0 to teenagers, parents, grandparents, friends and neighbours could all enjoy. The target set for the playground association's design was £120,000.

"The association spent hours working on small grant applications."

She added: "The Town Clerk entered into discussions with Epping Forest District Council's S106 officer and Qualis (which is developing five sites in Epping) many months ago.

"It was wonderful when £50,000 was awarded to Epping Playground Association (by Qualis) towards the project. The target had finally been reached.

An additional £40,000 was received from the National Lottery to take the total raised for the project to £176,000.

Councillor Scruton added: "The playground demonstrates what can be achieved when we all work together as a community."

Epping Playground Association chairman Siobhan Garrett said: "When we started this project in 2019 we knew we needed a new playground for our community.

"What we could never have predicted is a virus and pandemic that would shut our children away from the world, and each other, for months on end.

"Trying to fundraise coming out of lockdown was near impossible but that experience made us work even harder and dream even bigger because we knew we all needed this - somewhere safe and fun for us all to come together and play."

She thanked Epping Town Council, Epping Forest District Council and Essex County Council and local councillors for their support, advice, grants and donations, as well as the National Lottery and Qualis, local businesses and local and national organisations for their funding contributions, and the playground association trustees for their continued efforts towards achieving the goal.

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She added: "We had an amazing group of volunteers that spurred us on when we needed them. We've had volunteers create our logo, give us advice on creating a brand and giving their time at events.