BREAKING: Playgrounds in Hastings to get £1.5 MILLION after MP’s Campaign
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Local MP Helena Dollimore is celebrating a £1.5 million investment to Hastings playgrounds, following her campaign with local children and parents to improve play spaces for local children.
Today it has been announced that playgrounds across the town will benefit from major upgrades, including a significant refurbishment of the playground in Alexandra Park, thanks to a major investment from the Labour Government.
The investment comes after Helena launched a campaign calling on councils, housing associations and developers to prioritise play provision and reverse the loss of playgrounds across Hastings, Rye and the villages. Backed by local parents and children, the campaign highlighted the declining state of many play areas in the area.
£1 million of the funding will come from the Labour Government’s Pride in Place Fund, a £21.5 million programme that will deliver investment in Hastings over the next decade.
The Labour Group on Hastings Borough Council successfully pushed for the additional £500,000 for local playgrounds, and for the council to publish a comprehensive Play Strategy to improve provision for children and families. This additional funding was made possible by £3 million in extra support provided to Hastings Borough Council by the Labour Government.
Helena has repeatedly raised concerns about the worn-down equipment at the council-run playground in Alexandra Park. She recently teamed up with local mum and Labour councillor for Silverhill, Billie Barnes, to highlight the need for improvements, and supported local mum Selina’s campaign for better facilities.
As part of her campaign, the Labour and Co-operative MP carried out an audit of all the playgrounds in her constituency and found that eight playgrounds had closed since 2014, and over half of the playgrounds in Hastings, Rye and the villages needed upgrading.
Helena also started a survey for local residents to feed back on the area’s play provision, and support her calls to improve it.
The MP has repeatedly raised the dire state of local playgrounds in Parliament and with Ministers. Her campaign recently attracted the attention of award-winning housing journalist Vicky Spratt, who covered the findings of Helena’s playground audit in the i Newspaper.
In response to this major investment in local playgrounds, Helena Dollimore MP, Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament for Hastings, Rye and the villages said:
“It’s fantastic news that playgrounds in Hastings will receive a £1.5 million upgrade thanks to this investment that I have secured from Labour Government.
So many local children and parents have told me how much they want to see playgrounds in our town improve. When I investigated our local playgrounds, I found that far too many had fallen into disrepair or closed altogether. I have been highlighting this in Parliament, in the national press, and in discussions with ministers and local councils, because children in Hastings deserve better.
This funding from the Labour Government’s Pride in Place programme is all about making Hastings a better place to live. Local people know our area better than anyone else, and that is why the Labour Government rightly said it is up to local people to decide how to spend this £21.5 million. Please keep sending in your ideas and I will keep pushing for as many residents as possible to have their say."
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