Five Swansea play areas set for a makeover

Four more communities in Swansea will be celebrating, now plans for upgrades of play areas in their neighbourhoods have been announced.

Jersey Park in St Thomas, Parc Llewellyn in Landore, Yalton in West Cross and two in Llansamlet will all see work start in the coming months to upgrade their popular children’s play areas.

Swings, carousels, climbing frames and multiplay units are all going to be features of the four new play areas which are part of the council’s ongoing £7.5m campaign to get children playing in their neighbourhoods.

They come on top of new play areas already under construction at Brynmill Park, the DFS play area in Morriston as well as in Cwmbrwla and Blaenymaes in the Penderry Ward.

This latest announcement brings to more than 50 the number of schemes either completed or in progress in a hugely-popular programme that’s benefited communities across Swansea.

Andrew Stevens, Cabinet Member for Environment and Infrastructure, said: “Swansea Council has pioneered this programme of improvements that will benefit children and young people for years to come

“It’s the biggest upgrade of outdoor play facilities of this kind implemented by any local authority in Wales since the pandemic. And it comes on top of our £1m commitment to a new generation of skateboard and BMX facilities for Swansea.

He added: “This announcement is a great pre-Christmas lift for residents in the latest neighbourhoods to benefit as I know they’ve been keen to see it happen.

“Since the end of the pandemic we’ve installed almost 50 new play areas or upgrades in neighbourhoods all across the city. Children have been thrilled by what they get and parents have been clamouring for more in places like St Thomas and Landore

“That’s why 15 new play areas have been scheduled for 2023-24. We’re very optimistic that they’ll love what they see when the latest round of building is done.

Robert Francis-Davies, Cabinet Member for Investment, Regeneration and Tourism, said: “We made our play areas pledge a policy commitment because we saw just how important they were to young families and children as a free place to go as we all emerged from the pandemic.

“We wanted to continue to encourage opportunities to get out and about and from my visits to see the sites, it’s very clear the feedback has been enormously positive.”

(Lead image: Swansea Council)