Good news - bad news

Despite all the wet weather over the last few months the play equipment at Kingsmead has been successfully installed and the grass is managing to grow back.  There are some horribly squelchy patches but nothing that a few days of wind and sun won't solve.  The equipment is obviously very attractive because despite the safety fencing being erected round some of it still to let the grass recover further people have removed the fencing and obviously been playing with enthusiasm.  At the moment it's not very attractive except at the weekends because there's not enough light when the young people come home from school, but by the Easter holiday the grass should be established and the young people of the estate should get the play value they've waited for.
The shrubs will be trimmed back and the shrub beds tidied.
Well done Egglescliffe & Eaglescliffe Council - another successful investment in play.
Later in the day came the bad news - Stockton Council's planning officer has recommended approval of the extension of Yarm Independent school onto the banks of the Tees below Egglescliffe Village.  That tranquil zone of the Tees Heritage Park will be changed forever if this goes ahead, and the evening was spent with the committee of the Egglescliffe Area Residents Association agreeing the way forward in order to put the arguments as clearly as possible at Planning committee.  It's not going to be easy to persuade the committee to go against the officer recommendation but we'll give it our best shot.

Kingsmead continued

Yesterday's consultation was a great success - lots of residents of all ages came to look at the proposals and make their comments.  As a result there will certainly be some changes to the proposals.  The Parish Council recreation committee always said that the views of the residents nearest to the site are very important and most of those people made the effort to come and look and tell us what they thought.  We also had loads of children from all round the estate, often with parents in tow.  All ages from 3 upwards were sharing their ideas so we've got masses of comments to go through and sort out a final proposal from.
The ward councillors ended up with several bits of casework related in a peripheral way to the play area as well as some discussions to be had with the police about further work in the area.  A very useful, if very tiring, 4 hours.  Thanks to everyone who came - you've given us plenty to think about!

Kingsmead Play Area

As residents of Egglescliffe parish will know Egglescliffe & Eaglescliffe council has a programme of refurbishing the play areas in the parish.  So far St Margaret's has been completed, Amberley Way phase 1 is complete and now it's Kingsmead's turn.  When the estate was built the developers were responsible for providing play equipment.  Sadly for the children of Kingsmead that was at the height of worries on safety so the equipment provided was fairly dull for anyone over the age of about 8 or 9.  Over a number of years ideas have been put forward but money wasn't available.  All that is changing now.  The Parish council share of the Council tax went up significantly a few years ago to enable these improvements.
Tomorrow afternoon between 2.30 and 6 there will be a gazebo by the current play area.  Plans for proposed changes will be on view and residents on the estate have had letters delivered asking them to come and look and comment.  Unlike too many "consultations" this is not a cut and dried scheme.  We genuinely want to know if we've got it right after listening to parents, young people and others.  Is the balance of equipment right for all ages?  Is there a need for a space for ball games to be played safely and is our suggestion of where it can happen the right one?  Will the layout encourage people to take their dogs elsewhere for their toilet needs?  Come and let us know.