Update on Playbuilders

Since the announcement of Playbuilders coming to Bensham Park, Groundwork has been visiting the site before and over the summer holidays, consulting with children and young people on what improvements in terms of play they feel the park needs.

A visit into Harrowgate Hill Primary School also took place through Groundwork and classes were asked on how they would like to see the money spent. There were many enthusiastic exciting ideas around climbing, swinging and assault courses.

From the initial consultation with the children and young people Darlington Borough Council and Groundwork are looking at possible locations and will be producing sketch plans with examples of the type of equipment suitable to the area.

Groundwork will be on site in Bensham Park on 29th September 2009, 3:00pm – 5:30pm. This will be an opportunity for everyone to come along and give comments on the project and the possible proposals.

If you have any queries about the project please contact Lisa Kwok at Groundwork on 01325 353791 or email lisa.kwok@groundwork.org.uk


Darlington Borough Council received £1.1m of funding through the national ‘Playbuilders’ scheme, which is funded through the Government Department of Children, Schools and Families. Playbuilders is a town wide project which focuses on creating exciting.

play spaces for all ages and abilities but with a particular focus on 8 – 13 years olds, ensuring play is accessible to all and the natural environment and equipment is used to provide challenging, adventurous play opportunities.

Groundwork have been commissioned by Darlington Borough Council to work with them on the project, to consult with local residents and users around Bensham Park gathering ideas on how the £30,000 available for the park can be spent following Playbuilder themes.

Play Rangers End of consultation report
Bensham Park


Children and young people have been being consulted with in Bensham park regarding what they would like to have in the park. Over two sessions a total of 21 children and young people were consulted and gave their opinions on the park and changes they would like to see. Of the 21 people consulted 15 were male and 6 were female. All were aged between 8 and 16.

The main points which arose from the consultation were that the children liked to climb and wanted something challenging to climb. The girls also asked for some kind of shelter for when it rains so they still have somewhere they can hang around as they like to sit on the swings to talk generally.

Other points which came up in the consultation were
• Assault course
• Tyre swing
• Big slide
• Rope swing
• Rock climbing
• Zip wire
• Big jumps for the bikes
• More swings.