Play park appeal reaches £62,000 fundraising target
CHILDREN in Tobermory could benefit from a new play park from as early as October, the playpark appeal committee has revealed.
A £15,000 grant, combined with two years of fundraising, has resulted in the £62,000 target being passed.
This means the committee will be able to achieve all it had initially planned and more.
A spokeswoman for the Tobermory Play Park Appeal Committee said: ‘We have recently been allocated a new contact within the correct [Argyll and Bute Council] department, with whom the committee met on site at the end of June, and we very much hope to now move forward with the tendering and procurement process during July and August, resulting in installation of the new equipment in time for the October holidays.
‘ We wish to thank the local community for their support, and assure all those who have contributed in any way that we will keep you informed on progress, now we are finally in the position to make a new play park for Tobermory a reality.’
Meanwhile, Oban’s underfives play park is halfway to becoming a reality.
The Friends of Oban Community Play Park received a £2,000 donation from the Oban, Lorn and the Islands Health and Wellbeing Network.
This puts the total amount raised to more than £ 50,000 – halfway to the £100,000 target.
Chairwoman of the group Lyndsay Elliot said: ‘It’s fantastic. I had to double-check the figure and make sure it was right.
‘I’m absolutely delighted to receive ongoing support from the Health and Wellbeing Network. It was one of the original groups to support phase one and provided funding for the opening party.’ After years of fundraising, the five- to 15-year-olds play park was opened earlier this year.
Lyndsay added: ‘ We started fundraising four and a half years ago and some of the kids [who will use the park] weren’t even born then.
‘ We get three-year- olds playing in the current park and they can just about deal with it, but as soon older kids come they have to get out of the way, so there’s an absolute need for an under-fives park.
‘ We looked at all the skills needed to use the big play park and we want to have things in the under-fives park that will help develop them.’