Play park boost as £1m investment for rural facilities

Play park boost as £1m investment for rural facilities

4 July 2018

RURAL play park facilities for children are set for a £1 million boost.

The new funding will develop and upgrade 16 play parks across Newry, Mourne and Down.

The package was announced by Newry, Mourne and Down chairman Mark Murin and Cllr Roisin Mulgrew, chairwoman of Mourne, Gullion and Lecale Rural Development Partnership.

Cllr Murnin said that the play park programme will receive £500,000 from the Rural Development Fund matched by the other half from the council’s Active and Healthy Communities budget.

“The cash injection is a direct result of a strategic approach developed from the Council’s Play Strategy in conjunction with the recently developed Village Plans for the district, which were also funded through the Rural Development Programme,” he said.

Councillor Mulgrew said that the partnership approach was shaped by extensive community consultation.

“I am delighted to see projects which were identified by local people through the Village Plans working their way through to fruition especially those which will contribute positively to the health and wellbeing of our children and young people,” she added.

Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) spokesman Jerome Burns said: “The benefits of play highlighted in the proposal, including the positive impact on the development and wellbeing of the children and young people in these rural areas as well as the positive impacts on community cohesion, makes the project a winner.”