Play Park Refurbishment Project

Background

Fairford Leys was designed to include a significant number of play parks aimed at young children. As the village is now around 20 years old, some of the equipment in these parks is reaching the end of its life. The village has developed and so has its population, so we are aware we need to provide green spaces for our teenagers, and adults to enjoy too. Full refurbishment of play park equipment is very expensive, so it would not be possible to replace all of these parks without additional funding. We have consulted in detail over the past five years studying usage, needs and equipment as we recognise how important parks are for residents.

Our Plan

Following a comprehensive safety review of all of our parks and a review of our finances we have decided to focus our provision of parks. We have decided to focus future investment and maintenance on our “best” parks. We identified the “best “parks based upon the size of their plot, the quality and condition of their equipment and their location, ensuring there is always a park within walking distance of every home. Our changes also address the need for larger grassed areas for ball games, which a lot of councils are promoting to encourage healthy activity. We also want to make some parks bigger with more equipment. We will re-cycle some equipment for use in other parks.

Progress made (Updated 2026)

Since this plan has been developed we have made some significant progress.

Brimmers Way Play Park, was refurbished as a new fitness park, reopening in 2022. We received full funding for the change of use in Brimmers Way playground for an Outdoor Gym.

In 2026, we secured funding and have completed work on a new high specification main play park at Swallow Lane which is now open.

Smaller changes have been made to various parks but work is ongoing. All other parks are under review as we plan to continue to improve every park we manage over time.