Ballynahinch firm’s playground success

18 July 2012

A BALLYNAHINCH company which specialises in designing and building playgrounds has completed work on a €250,000 project in Co. Laois.

Allplay, whose office is based on the Crabtree Road, secured the contract to design and build the new playground last December, with work on the project at Rathdowney being completed recently.

The project opened late last month to coincide with the start of the school holidays and represents a major investment in a resource that will continue to serve the community for years to come.

The playground and multi-use games area provides a safe environment for children and young people to play, learn, exercise and socialise together. It also provides a proactive community area that focuses on conservation, horticulture and social spaces.

Allplay director Brian McKee revealed that managing a large site such as Rathdowney “always has its challenges,” but it’s something the Ballynahinch company does regularly and is well versed in.

“The primary concerns are always build quality, site safety and bringing the project in on time,” he explained.

“The level of hands-on community involvement at Rathdowney was quite special. It’s commonplace for community groups to be involved at the consultation stage, but this build was different in that the community group have been hands on throughout.”

Mr. McKee explained community officials were on site weeding, laying turf and planting trees and that even in the worst of weather conditions, they really invested in the project.

Allplay’s playground designer Gillian Hanna revealed the natural environment and the idea of a traditional Irish fort was the first main inspiration for the Rathdowney design.

She added: “Other ideas then grew organically from that point with the use of natural materials such as wood, willow and rope to reflect the theme. The concept of the fort led us to create a large-scale mound with a moat and bridge as a main focal point of the design.”

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