£300,000 to Play With
The Big Lottery Fund has announced that Lancaster City Council has been successful in its bid for £307,430 of Lottery money. The cash will help the council deliver its new Play Strategy, a five-year plan to develop children and young people’s play services in the district. Green Councillor Maia Whitelegg, Lancaster City Council’s cabinet member for Culture and Young People, said: “This is wonderful news. The investment by the Big Lottery will benefit thousands of children and young people in our district over the next three years and provide lots of new and exciting opportunities for play.”
One of the projects that will now be developed is a Play Ranger scheme. This will see two full-time play rangers working across the district in local parks, open spaces, schools and community centres facilitating play and games.The money will also be used to develop a new concept play facility in one of the council’s parks, providing a range of play opportunities to challenge young people’s sense of adventure and imagination.
Plans for the council to look at innovative ways to create imaginative play spaces formed part of Lancaster Green Party’s 2007 Local election manifesto. These ideas have been developed by the Freeplay Network.