Playpark fund hits £76,000

FRIENDS of Oban Community Playpark have raised £23,000 towards finishing its final phase, the under-fives play area – leaving only £24,000 to go to reach their £100,000 target.

Friends of Oban Community Playpark is a fundraising group aiming to build ‘an outstanding play and recreation area for five to 15-year- olds in the green field next to Atlantis Leisure, created and fundraised for by our community for our community’, according to its Facebook page.

Chairwoman Lyndsay Elliott told The Oban Times: ‘Our recent funding successes are £10,068 from Scottish Sea Farms (SSF) Heart of the Community Fund and £12,942 from Crerar Hotels Trust, which will be used to build a new all-inclusive under-fives playpark at Atlantis Community Leisure. Friends of Oban Community Playpark are aiming to raise a total of £100,000 and with these new donations, have about £76,000 towards the project.

‘Both Crerar Hotels Trust and SSF have previously supported our project, with both contributing to the older children’s playpark, and we are delighted at their ongoing support.

‘ We need to continue to close the funding gap and have some grants pending early 2017, so it is a real possibility that we can start building in 2017.’

On top of raising £76,000 for the under-fives playpark, so far the group has ‘built an awesome playpark for five to 15-year-olds’, which opened in February, and upgraded a memorial garden.