NEW facilities at a Swaythling playground have opened.

A new basketball court and re-levelled football pitch at Octavia park in Swaythling were unveiled to the public on August 8th.

They were opened by Bob Painton, 63, who used to be the Swaythling Councillor.

The labour for the project was completed for free by local contractors’ including, Mount park industrial development, who donated materials from their supply chain to help with the project that cost £10,000 to complete.

Bob said: “it’s fantastic that we are finally able to open these new facilities as we have wanted to have this playground resurfaced for many years.

“People have complained for a long time that the kids in this area don’t have a safe space to play football with their friends and I’m thrilled to say that now they do.”

Bob went on to say that: “the development of this park won’t stop after today.

“I’m hoping that lots of clubs will use this space to their benefit and walking football is something I particularly want to introduce here.

“I always want to better the local people in Swaythling and hopefully I’ll be back as their councillor again in two years time.

“I can’t thank all of the contractors enough for their hard work.”

Wall Groves who is one of the developers from Mount Park Industrial said: “ We wanted to get involved with this project so we could do something for the local community.

We wanted to ensure that kids and families had a good space where they could get some fresh air and Bob’s efforts to ensure this project happened is commendable.

He does so much for the local people.”

Florine Garbour, 33, who works for Winvic construction said: “I worked on the start of this project on the re-levelling on the football pitch. It was something I was looking forward to doing as I think it’s really important to give back to the council and the local people.

The final result is fantastic.”