The planned car park extension and new playground installation is finally happening!
Visitors to the Old Schoolhouse over the last few years will be familiar with the parking constraints caused by the small onsite car park. Addressing this issue has been one of our key priorities following the completion of the Community Asset Transfer for the building and grounds in 2019 as, ensuring the safety of our families and visitors is vital. At the same time, there was an opportunity to create a fully inclusive space for ALL in the adjoining play park – the first of it’s kind in Westhill.
Over the last 18 months, our team have been carefully planning the upgrade of the outdated play park on Westhill Road. We worked with play equipment experts to create a design that offers something for all abilities and makes the most of the footprint. The carefully selected items include a sensory play frame with slide, swings for all ages and abilities as well as a wheelchair accessible trampoline and roundabout.
We are so excited to see work begin – the play park is going to be a fantastic asset to both our charity and Westhill!
Suz Strachan, Service Manager and Co-Founder
The design has also focused on retaining some open green space so families can enjoy picnics and children can play freely. The new park area will be surrounded by fencing to ensure it is a secure space, safe for children to run and explore.
Meanwhile, the car park extension will allow up to 20 vehicles to park onsite, massively improving safety for visitors to the Old Schoolhouse who previously had to park on the roadside. This will also reduce traffic congestion and inconvenience to our neighbours.
The new entrance to the car park from Westhill Road allows for one-way traffic flow to reduce the risk to pedestrians from turning vehicles.
While a designated drop off point has been created specifically to accommodate minibuses or larger vehicles.
Finally, the original car park area will be reserved for those requiring disabled access and larger parking bays.
With the project costing over £147,000 the task of securing the funding in the last year has been challenging and we feel extremely grateful that despite the pandemic so many organisations have pledged their support.
Special thanks go to our main donors – The Wooden Spoon Charity who are funding the majority of the play equipment costs and Aberdeenshire Council who have awarded us a large grant from their Developers Obligations Fund.
Our contributors:
We would also like to thank Fairhurst and our former Chair, Bob McCracken who were instrumental in making this project a reality. Thanks finally to Nicol of Skene for all their help and assistance.
In the future, we hope to add more elements to the park such as sensory panels – we’d love to hear from you if you have suggestions on what else you’d like in the park please get in touch!
Follow our Facebook page for more updates on the progress of the construction.
For all press or media enquiries please contact info@sensationall.org.uk
