Children at Sycamore Adventure Playground have benefitted from a new play area thanks to the generosity of intu Merry Hill, Legal & General and Barclays.

The Dudley council-run facility, which offers outdoor play, forest school sessions and arts and craft activities, was offered play equipment and business volunteers to install it at the play area on Old Park Farm Estate, Dudley.

Intu Merry Hill offered the site the play equipment from their retired timber play area. Barclays staff, Sycamore Adventure staff and intu staff spent two days dismantling the playground and transporting it over to Sycamore Adventure last week.

Staff at the site ran a consultation with children to see what they would like to see made from the timber and the overriding consensus was castles and pirate ships. Legal & General sent 15 staff to help re-assemble the wood into new structures on site. A new pirate ship now takes pride of place at the play area and staff have started to create an outdoor tool use area for children.

Legal & General staff volunteers also lopped trees, litter picked and filled a skip on site.

The kind-hearted volunteers are returning on Wednesday to put in another days graft to complete some of the structures. They will paint the pirate ship, continue work on the tool use area and begin work creating a castle. Councillor Ian Cooper, cabinet member for children’s services said:

“Sycamore Adventure Play is a wonderful resource for our children and young people and already has so much to offer in terms of learning through play.

“The addition of this re-purposed equipment, and the generosity of these companies, intu Merry Hill, Barclays and Legal & General in offering us their resources and staff time has enriched the site further.

“The new play equipment is fantastic for the children, but also to know that there are generous-spirited people out there eager to support local causes sets a great example to our children and young people using the centre and is a great example of a community council at work.”

Although entry to the centre is free, donations are welcome to support running costs and future development of the centre.

For more information about the centre visit http://www.sycamoreadventure.co.uk/ or call 01384 813 828.