WESTLANDS playground in the Waterworks is set to benefit from a major refurbishment.
This year’s Playground Refurbishment Programme has an allocated budget of £580,000 under the Capital Programme for financial year 2022/23, which will be used to refurb Westlands playground in North Belfast and Sally Gardens playground and Areema play area in West Belfast.
All three playgrounds recommended for refurbishment are those with the lowest quality scores, as rated by Belfast City Council.
Since its inception in 2012, the Playground Refurbishment Programme continues to make a significant and positive impact to the overall quality and play value of the city’s playgrounds; this has greatly improved accessibility, providing more inclusive equipment, safety surfacing, boundary fencing, site furniture and landscaping works.
Local Sinn Féin councillor JJ Magee said: “I warmly welcome this Belfast City Council investment into the play park in the Waterworks and wish to see much more of the same for this popular North Belfast park.
“The money will go to upgrade the children’s play park at the Westland end of the park which is much used by toddlers and families and clearly needs improvement.
“Sinn Féin have been campaigning for serious investment in the Waterworks for some time and there’s no doubt the whole park needs upgrading.
“The potential for the Waterworks hasn’t been realised and I’m confident that with investment we can preserve the best aspects of the park while providing good quality facilities throughout the park.
“This is a community space open and welcoming to all and it’s important we build upon the goodwill that exists and back that with council investment and other funding streams.
“We want to see fully accessible changing and toilet facilities, improved lighting for safety and increased use of the park all year round and some wider improvements including with cleansing.
“I hope this is only the start of better things to come and that this play park will provide many hours of safe fun for everyone that comes along.”
