Outdoor gym equipment for village

A PARISH council is splashing out more than £16,000 on outdoor gym kit.

Desford Parish Council is installing two sets of fitness equipment near existing play areas, one on Kirkby Road in the village and the other at the junction of Markfield Lane and Main Street in Botcheston.

Each of the sets will cost £16,600 plus VAT, with the Botcheston kit being paid for from parish council reserves while Section 106 funding from Bellway Homes will cover the Kirkby Road installation.

Planners hope to have the exercise kit installed by mid-November. Wicksteed is providing the equipment, which includes a chest press and pull down exerciser, a space walker, a surfer, a skier, a cycle and a double leg press.

Council chairman Colin Crane said the plans were widely well received and that there had been calls for apparatus to be installed at the Botcheston site for over a year.

Mr Crane said: “People from Sport in Desford and people who use the recreation ground on Kirkby Road have been supportive. Some people have said that it will get vandalised but there is always a risk of vandalism. The equipment nance.”

Council bosses also hope the pupils at Desford Community Primary School will use the kit on Kirkby Road, as some of the equipment will be appropriate for children.

Footballers who use the pitches on Kirkby Road asked that the equipment not be placed behind the goals and the council said the kit will be placed away from the pitches.

There are also plans to repair an access gate at the Botcheston site and move it further back from the road. will be low mainte-