Play area boost for Diss park

CHILDREN are set to get a recreational boost with news that work is to begin on the long-awaited replacement of play equipment in Diss Park.

CHILDREN are set to get a recreational boost with news that work is to begin on the long-awaited replacement of play equipment in Diss Park.

Plans for a major regeneration of the town's main park have been in the pipeline for more than three years. But town councillors welcomed news that the first phase of work to the children's play area, near Diss Mere, will be completed in the summer.

Replacement of the play equipment for toddlers will cost �40,000, a quarter of which has been funded by recycling company Wren. The revamp of the junior play area has been met by about �60,000 of Section 106 money from developer contributions.

John Maskell told councillors on Wednesday that it was the wrong time to be spending thousands of pounds on play equipment when people were losing their jobs and struggling financially. 'We are spending money like there is no tomorrow,' he said.

But Diss mayor Simon Olander said that if the town council did not act now, it would lose its funding for the first phase of the play area project.

'We have to keep going and we should not go backwards. It is something we started three or four years ago and it is something we are going to see through,' he said.

Town leaders hope that the work will be completed by the start of the Diss Carnival celebrations in June. A project co-ordinator and landscape architect have also been appointed to make progress on the rest of the Diss Park regeneration scheme.

Town councillors have also approved a �10,000 allocation of Section 106 money towards a new play area in Wilby Avenue, Diss, as part of a Saffron Housing Trust project.