The riverside play area in Towneley Park was has been re-opened by local youngster eight-year-old Kenzie Lumsden following a major refurbishment undertaken by Burnley Council’s greenspaces team.

Kenzie is disabled and wasn’t able to use the previous equipment but the refurbished play area featured equipment that is accessible and open for Kenzie, and others like him, to use. He was put forward to officially re-open the playground and the council was pleased to allow him the honour.
The play area has always been a firm favourite with local families but needed some improvements and so the council worked with the Friends of Towneley on the consultation and design of the play area and the Friends secured grant funding of £30,000 from the Lancashire Environmental Fund towards the cost of the scheme. Burnley Rotary Club also helped support the project.

Chair of the Friends of Towneley, Maureen Frankland, said: “Towneley is part of our lives, we played here as children and now we enjoy taking our children and grandchildren to the park and seeing them having fun. We wanted the play area to provide opportunities for children of all ages and abilities and we are very grateful to the Lancashire Environmental Fund and Burnley Council for providing the funding to refurbish the play area.”
The council’s head of greenspaces and amenities, Simon Goff, said:

“We have opened the play area for the Easter holidays so that youngsters could enjoy it during the school break. It’s not quite complete, and we have a couple of large items of equipment, including an interactive sonic arch and a 3m high tube slide with rope bridge still to put in. These will be installed after the holidays are over.”