Published: December 21, 2007
Huge National Lottery windfall for new Highbridge Apex Park play area

Highbridge's Apex Wildife Park has been handed a huge Christmas windfall from the National Lottery this week.

The Big Lottery Fund announced on Friday (December 21st) that children in the district are set to benefit from a £230,000 lottery windfall over three years.

The windfall will be spent on two projects - a 'Play Rangers' project which aims to boost play facilities in areas of disadvantage across the region - and the 'Apex Park Playscape' which seeks to deliver a new 'natural play space' in the park.

This will include the use of natural materials, like sand, grass and trees and combine this with new play equipment.

"Sedgemoor District Council is thrilled with this award and will be looking forward in the new year to starting on the project plans," council spokeswoman Claire Faun told Burnham-On-Sea.com.

"The award will mean that Apex Park, as well as being a Green Flag park, will also be a much more fun place for children to play. Sedgemoor District Council would also like to take this opportunity to thank Barnardos and Somerset Play Forum for the support they gave us in preparing the successful bid."

She went on to say: "The existing play area at Apex Park is reaching the end of its life expectancy and is in need of refurbishment. The Big Lottery Fund should provide an excellent opportunity to improve and enhance this play area to a very high standard," said council spokeswoman Claire Faun.

"The Play-Scape will demonstrate how natural play can be complemented by modern commercial play equipment to form exciting and challenging places to play."

"The location at Apex Park will provide an exciting opportunity to utilise the existing grassy slopes on site, together with other natural products such as rocks, sand and new commercial equipment to provide an integrated range of high quality formal and informal opportunities in play."

She added that the local community, especially children, would be involved in the design and planning stages of the project and this process has already begun with a 900-letter mail shot to households within the vicinity of Apex Park.

The Play-Scape site will be managed and maintained by Sedgemoor District Council in partnership with the community and principles of best practice.

The Play Ranger Service will be funded through the Big Lottery Fund's Children’s Play Initiative to a tune of £170,000 over a period of 3 years and will be overseen by the Council’s Parks and Opens Spaces Team in association with the Sedgemoor Play Partnership.

"The play rangers will target key parks and gardens where children and young people face barriers to play, especially those living in areas of deprivation. It will also help bring together different groups of children through play, thus making the service more inclusive," said council spokeswoman Claire Faun.