THE revamped playground at Steam Mills playing fields was officially opened last week, a year ahead of schedule.

Children from Steam Mills School next door were more than happy to give the new equipment a test run after lessons had finished last Tuesday (October 11).

The upgrade was organised by Cinderford Town Council with all but £5,000 of the £55,000 coming from the Enovert Trust.

The town council applied to the trust which makes grants to community groups from money raised by rubbish going to landfill at Enovert’s facility in Gloucester.

Chair of the town council, Cllr Chris Witham said: “This is a long-established but slightly neglected play area .“We’ve got a scheme to improve all the play areas across Cinderford Town Council’s patch.

“We’ve had a huge amount of investment in the Miners’ Welfare field and we’ve also put money into the play area at Latimer Road and the two smaller play areas at the top of town

“We were looking at how we might fund improvements here and Emma our clerk applied for the Enovert grant

“That was successful which allowed us to bring our plans for this park forward by a whole year.

‘‘ It’s been brilliant to work with them.

“Quite a few people probably don’t know this park is here but this is a great facility for this part of the town.”

Trust manager Angela Heymonds said: “We are funded through the Landfill Communities Fund.

“Enovert has a landfill site in Gloucester and some of the tax on landfill can be diverted into the community.

“This authority were successful in bidding for £50,000.”

As well as attending the opening at Steam Mills, she also visited other projects which had received grants from the trust including a new play area at Brockweir, St Peter’s Church in Newnham which has replaced shingles on the spire and Lydney Community Centre which has a new boiler.

The equipment at Steam Mills has been completely revamped and includes a multi-use activity which is made of 100 per cent recycled material including fishing nets and plastic bags.

Tom Griffiths of manufacturers Komplan said the carbon footprint of the equipment was 65 per cent less than the steel equivalent.