£1 million revamp for five park play areas across Dudley

Dudley Council's cabinet is set to rubber stamp plans to spend an additional £300,000 a year up to 2026 on improving parks and green spaces when it meets next week.

Plans have allocated £200,000 of the £300,000 spent on improvements to play areas at Tenscore in Sedgley, Woodside Park, Wall Heath Park, King George VI Park in Kingswinford and Lawyers Field in Brierley Hill.

The authority is improving and updating the toddler play provision and improving the inclusive play element within these play areas.

A new play facility will also be installed on Lawyers Field, as part of the initial phase of improvements.

Around £50,000 will be spent at Buffery Park and Priory Park to improve benches, signs and other infrastructure in a bid to ensure the two sites retain prestigious Green Flag status.

A sum of £25,000 will be spent on developing a volunteer training programme to assist friends groups in maintaining and improving parks.

The final £25,000 for 2023/24 will be spent on developing outline design and business cases for new and improved visitor facilities at Wrens Nest and Leasowes Park in Halesowen.

The £300,000 comes on top of an already agreed spend of more than £600,000 for 2023/24 on parks and open spaces.

Councillor Damian Corfield, cabinet member for highways and environment, said: "I’m delighted to be able to reveal where we hope to spend the first third of our near £1 million extra investment in our parks and green spaces over the next three years.

"Play areas are the community hubs of our parks – they are where families and friends meet to play, have fun and catch up. Prior to cabinet, we have identified four sites that in particular were tired, out-dated and, as a result, very much under-used and we are also investing in a new facility at Lawyers Field."

He added: "We hope to change that by spending £200,000 to modernise them and hopefully get families and children out and using them again.

"I’m also really pleased that this sets aside a significant amount of money to support our friends groups, to allow them to access training and equipment. They do an excellent job on a volunteer basis maintaining and improving our parks and we want to make things as simple and stress-free as we can for them."

Kerry Wickett, secretary at Wall Heath Parks Community Group, said: "We are working together to make improvements to the park including work to benches, a refurb of the play equipment and a new five-a-side area.

"It’s great to work with the council and the local community to maintain this valued green space. All our work is focused on looking after the local environment and providing green space for all sections of the community."