Thumbs up for Broad Marsh’s new play area
A NEW urban play area has opened outside Nottingham’s Central Library as part of the regeneration of the Broad Marsh.
The play area, in Collin Street, features specially designed swings, a play trail with timber stepping blocks, balancing walkways, a seesaw and green planting.
The new play space is part of a Playable Cities Initiative to create child-friendly spaces in the city centre and support the city’s journey to becoming a Unicef Childfriendly City.
Local school children were consulted on the design, creating the swings and seating so the space could be somewhere families could gather and spend time together.
Year 5 pupils from Welbeck Primary School helped open the new play area with a ribbon cutting alongside the leader of Nottingham City Council, Councillor David Mellen, on Friday.
Councillor Mellen explained that, despite the council’s “very tight” financial situation, the rules dictated that the money used to fund the play area could not have been used for the city’s daily expenditure.
He said: “We’re glad to be able to use that money but we are having to tighten our belts in all sorts of ways, and we will continue to do that over the coming months. We are asking the Government to fund us properly for our statutory services.”
The funding was part of the Transforming Cities Fund, a Government scheme which both Nottingham and Derby’s city councils successfully bid for in 2020.
A total of £3m went into the regeneration of the area, which includes the play area, the library and Broadmarsh Bus Station building, and the paths outside it.
Councillor Mellen added: “Collin Street used to be four lanes of traffic racing to get home, putting out fumes into the environment. I think most people would agree this is much more pleasant.
“The lovely planting will grow and develop, making this a very green area and I’m sure children will enjoy the wooden trails, the swings, the seesaw and the safe surface. We want our city to be a child-friendly city and carbon neutral - this all helps.”
Children from Welbeck Primary School expressed their excitement about the new facility. Asma Fadil, nine, said: “It’s really cool
and helps you deal with all the stuff in your head, it calms you down. It’s really colourful and brings a lot of joy into the world because there’s not a lot of parks around here and it’s very vibrant.”
Samarth Khandelwal, also nine, added: “I really like it, I like everything. I’ve just gone on the swing a few seconds ago and I felt so free, my mind felt free and it was really fun.”
Collin Street is the latest piece of the wider Broad Marsh public realm redevelopment, all
of which has been designed and developed by Townshend Landscape Architects.
As well as the new play space, Collin Street is now fully open for people to walk through, with a traffic-free route connecting the Green Heart, where construction work has started, and Lister Gate, with the new green public space on Sussex Street next to Nottingham College, which features a mini amphitheatre, skate space and a multi-use games area.
The Broad Marsh regeneration has already seen the development of a new Central Library, car park, bus station and a new
Nottingham College city hub, and has transformed streets and public spaces in the area by increasing footfall, particularly supporting businesses on Lister Gate.
Recently, it was revealed that a new Community Diagnostic Centre will be located on the Broad Marsh regeneration site and will be run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The CDC will be a one-stop shop which supports GPS by providing direct access to diagnostics services such as MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound, echocardiography, ECG and lung function testing.