A WROUGHTON playground which received a £76,000 make-over was officially re-opened yesterday.

A blue ribbon was cut to unveil the new and improved North Wroughton Play Area which includes swings, roundabouts, a spiders web climbing area and a zipwire.

Councillor Holly Woodward, vice chair of Wroughton Parish Council, said she was impressed with the playground’s new look.

“It’s a wonderful resource for North Wroughton children. It looks fantastic as a play park and there’s lots of different options for children to play in a safe environment,” she said.

“We hope it will bring a lot of people together in the play park. It took us a while to get here but it looks brilliant.

Following a three week construction period the brand-new playground is now open to the public

The old play equipment had been in place for more than 15 years and was in desperate need of a makeover.

The refurbishment was made possible with a funding boost of £37,500 from the Hill Group Ltd. The money was made available through the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) which is administered for Hills by Community First. The remainder of the money was donated by Wroughton Parish Council.

Paul Kemnitz, property manager who oversaw the refurbishment said he was delighted with the final outcome.

“It’s been really fun putting this together. It definitely needed doing,” he said.

“It was tatty and the fence posts were dirty. There used to be a roundabout here and the paint was coming off.

And he said the playground is already a hit with local children,

“Even though it was fenced off kids still got in and had a go on it and of course they loved the zipwire and the bright colours, I think it will be really popular,” he said.

Nick King, group director at Hills said he was pleased to see the results of the 18 month process to upgrade the playground.

“It’s all very exciting and all part of what we try to do , working with our local communities,” he said.

“Because we are a local company it is really important for us to support the community in any way we can. It’s one of the best parts of the job, coming together to see a great community project such as the park.”