Play park in the shadow of Bamburgh Castle could get castle-themed revamp

A working group led by the parish council has contacted various equipment suppliers to get some ideas of the likely cost.

Cllr John Mackey, providing an update to Bamburgh Parish Council, said: “We have spoken to Bamburgh Castle Estates and they have no objection to us moving behind the tennis courts which would extend it a little bit.

“We’ve reviewed the current play park to see what people thought was good about it and what needed to change.

"In general, there are some issues about safety given that it’s on an elevated patch of land which isn’t great for small kids and it’s also open to dogs which isn’t great for hygiene.

"We’ve had a look around the local area and identified who has a good play park and the ones people liked best were Embleton and Beadnell.”

They have got two interested parties working on a tender and will wait for a third once Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.

"Once we’ve got those tenders we’ll know what sort of money we’re talking about,” said Cllr Mackey.

"The biggest road block is where are we going to get the money from because, realistically, I think we are talking £60-70,000 which is a lot of money for a parish council of this size.

“I know Shilbottle and Longhoughton have had some very significant local donations so we need to look at that.”

He felt it was unrealistic to have the new play park ready for the 2021 tourist season but hoped to get everything in place for the work to be done by 2022.

Cllr Guy Renner-Thompson, local county councillor, advised that on-going maintenance costs would also have to be factored in.

"Buying it is almost the easy part, it’s the on-going maintenance that can be the issue,” he said.

Cllr Barbara Brook, chairman, said: “We’ve been quite lucky with the equipment that we’ve had very few maintenance issues apart from wear and tear.”

Cllr Mackey said: “There’s probably not very much of what we have which is reusable so we’re probably looking at a completely new kit.

"We are thinking of a castle-theme but all options are open.”

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