Council awarded grants to revamp south Shropshire play area

The Cleobury Mortimer Town Council have received £50,000 from the Rural Development Programme for England's LEADER funding as well as £10,000 from the National Lottery's Awards for All.

A total of £60,000 has been awarded to the council as they plan to improve a play area on Love Lane and install adult gym equipment there.

Debbie Brown, chair of Cleobury Mortimer Town Council, said they are thrilled to have secured the funding for the town.

"It is a really well used area and people meet at school times and things," she said.

"It is a nice, pleasant place for people to take their children so it really is time to do a revamp of the area."

The council estimates it will cost around £75,000 for the entire project and said they will fund the rest of the money themselves.

Debbie said: "We planned that we would put a donation towards the restoration and it comes from our neighbourhood funding money.

Wellbeing

"We will make a decision about the contractor at our next town council meeting in October. There will be anonymous quotes and we will choose based on value and design."

The council hopes the project will be completed by the end of the year.

Matt Sheehan, Town Council Clerk, said: "It has been a few years trying to get this done because the area was so run down.

"We had supporting letters from the primary school and the doctors surgery that helped us with securing funding. They supported it because it can help people's health and wellbeing, especially doing exercise and being outdoors.

"The play area is close to the school and so they use it a lot.

"The equipment will be accessible for people with disabilities so anybody can use it."

Many other organisations in Cleobury Mortimer have recently received National Lottery Awards for All grants, including the Cleobury Mortimer Men's Shed, the Friends of St. Mary's Church and the St. Mary's Church Committee, both to help with improvements to the building.

LEADER is part of the Rural Development Programme for England. It is a French acronym (Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l’Économie Rurale) which roughly translates as ‘Liaison among Actors in Rural Economic Development’.