Appleby play area officially opened following community campaign

The new Appleby Play Area in Knaresborough was formally opened this morning (9 January 2022) by the Mayor of Knaresborough, Councillor Christine Willoughby and Councillor Ed Darling.

• The play area was formally the Scotton Banks Play Area and, was very tired and in need of modernization
• Appleyby Play Area is located in the Appleby Area of Knaresborough, off Ripley Road
• The community, local councillors and Harrogate Borough Council worked together to
• Grant funding of £60K was received from FCC Communities Foundation funding, a funding available for those that live within 10-miles of a landfill site or recycling centre
• Locally they needed to raise £6k, but raised more, meaning they can now spend that on additional equipment/ benches

At the opening today, Councillor Ed Darling gave his thanks to all those that had financially supported the development, including Harrogate Borough Council, Knaresborough Town Council, County Councillor Zoe Metcalfe, Rotary Knaresborough Lions, Knaresborough Relief in Need and all the residents on the estate that had contributed.

Local resident, Charlie Davison has been a key figure in making this happen, Charlie said:

It was a play area before, but it was pretty run down and one of the items of play equipment had to be removed, as it was unsafe – it was just failing on us as it was not very nice.

Councillor Ed Darling approached me just over 2-years ago and said we need a new play park.

I fully agreed with him, but we had to raise 10% of £60,000 to make it happen by putting a grant application to the FCC.

It was also at the beginning of lockdown, which made it more difficult, meaning that many of the things we had planned just didn’t happen. We had to revert to things like online auctions to make money.

We were lucky that we had groups like the Knaresborough Lions, Knaresborough Rotary, and all the local councillors gave us money. In the end, we raised just short of £9K

With that, we were successful in the application to the FCC, and a year down the line here we are, it’s amazing.

Andrew Jones MP said:

Local councillor, Ed Darling has done some very good work, and I have come down today to support him.

They have pulled together £60,000 of funding that will completely transform this play area.

It was  a play area for a long time, but not in very good shape.

360 image of the play area

Councillor Ed Darling commented:

This project has been a real team effort from residents on the estate, Harrogate Borough Council and our generous donors.  I am pleased that we were able to secure the significant investment to allow this project to take place and make the play area the jewel of the estate.

It will benefit young people of all ages and encourage children to exercise and create friendships.

As the youngest councillor on HBC, I am grateful to the council for supporting this project specifically for our young people.

Cheryl Raynor, FCC Communities Foundation Local Grant Manager said:

We are delighted to have supported the Borough Council in bringing this project to fruition.

This is an important facility for local people, and we are pleased to see it open and available to use.

FCC Communities is a not-for-profit business that awards grants for community, conservation and heritage projects from funds donated by FCC Environment through the Landfill Communities Fund. Since 1998, FCC Communities has granted over £200m to more than 7,000 projects which benefit people living within 10 miles of a FCC Environment landfill site.  For more information, please visit www.fcccommunitiesfoundation.org.uk