New Play Park Opens in Gateshead!

The Land of Oak & Iron has officially opened their brand new natural looking, play park in Blaydon.

Transcript

00:00After months of planning, building and collaboration, the park was officially opened on the 25th of July

00:06and local children from Bladens football and rugby clubs were the first to put the equipment to the test.

00:12Well, as you can see, we've just done our grand play park opening.

00:17It's thanks to Gateshead Council for the funding of this.

00:21There are no other natural play parks within the area

00:26and there hasn't been one built in the Gateshead region for many years, so this is a fantastic addition.

00:32It's not only for our customers of the Heritage Centre, but it's also for users of the Derwent Valley as well.

00:38Obviously, it's open to the public, open 24 hours a day, although probably don't come at 3 in the morning.

00:45And yeah, it's for everyone, really. It's a fantastic addition. We're really excited.

00:51The opening was a celebration of community spirit with live music, storytelling, games, crafts and stalls,

00:58all set in one of Gateshead's most scenic green spaces.

01:02The park has been thoughtfully designed to sit in harmony with its natural surroundings,

01:07with wooden climbing frames, swings in a roundabout placed on the grass rather than synthetic flooring.

01:13It blends beautifully into the woodland setting.

01:16I mean, the reason for it was that we're very family friendly anyway.

01:22We get lots of people for our events.

01:25So we obviously like a little kids menu and some beautiful walks around.

01:30But people would ask us what there is to kind of like do other than our centre.

01:34And we'd send them down to the river to play poo sticks.

01:37So it's lovely now that actually we can be able to offer a play park.

01:43Some of the features of the play park is that it fits into the landscape.

01:48The building itself, you might have noticed, has like all sorts of environmental features such as a green roof, the rain chains.

01:56And you'll notice that you can't actually see it visible from many of the paths.

02:01And the play park, the idea was very similar.

02:05We want it to look natural.

02:06We want it to fit in.

02:07And I think that we've achieved that.

02:09Donations have got us to where we are now, as well as, as I say, the funding from Gateshead Council.

02:15Donations going forward are going to be for the maintenance of the play park.

02:19And also just to enhance the outside areas.

02:22So we're looking at bird feeding stations and the storytelling chair and picnic benches.

02:30Because as you can see, we haven't got any quite yet, but it's on the cards.

02:34I must mention that Land of Oak and Iron is managed and owned by the charity Groundwork North East and Cumbria.

02:40Groundwork North East and Cumbria is an environmental and communities charity.

02:44We are the trading arm for the charity.

02:46All of our profits, all of our money go directly back into the charity.

02:50So that's every event ticket that you buy, every cuppa that you buy, every food item that you order.

02:56All of that money goes back to the charity and goes back to the communities around you.