A NEW care home development has helped a nearby pre-school to achieve its "dream playground".

Barchester Healthcare which owns Hedge End's newest care home, Snowdrop Place has helped to fund work on Pavilion Pirates playground.

During the construction of the care home which opened recently in April, the Project Manager at Highwood Homes, which built the home, invited children from the pre-school to visit the site to learn about the construction process.

The children were also allowed follow progress during their daily journey to nursery by looking through holes that were cut in the hoarding for them.

During the visit, it emerged the nursery needed work carrying out on its playground, so Barchester Healthcare, Highwood’s and Frontier Estates decided to make "substantial contributions" to help fund and carry out the work on the playground.

This work was also supported financially by the co-op community group and their charity incentive.

The work included replacing the playground surface and introducing a ramp to make the playground easily accessible and wheelchair friendly.

Mark Bennett, Director of Property Services for Barchester Healthcare, said: “It was great to see how interested the children were in the building work. We hope they all get loads of enjoyment from using the new playground now it is completed.”

Linda Noble, the lead practitioner at Pavilion Pirates added: "The new outside play area has enriched the setting, allowing children to explore outdoors safely. Many children do not experience the freedom, experience and the health benefits of an outside space at home so having this lovely new area gives them the opportunity to learn through play and exploration.

"The previous area was uninviting, we can see how much more the children use the outdoors now which is wonderful. All the staff and children would like to thank the Barchester Health Care Group, the CO-OP community group and all the builders at Highwood who worked so hard to make this happen."