Ryedale District Council (RDC) has given the green light for construction of a new and improved play park for local families.

The play park, at Riverside View in Norton, will include inclusive equipment that can be used by all children.

Much of the new equipment can be used by children who have a variety of additional accessibility needs.

Two of the new inclusive pieces of equipment include a springer and multiplay unit.

There will also be a new junior multi-play piece of play equipment.

Many of the other pieces of equipment in the park will be replaced, such as the swings. This is to ensure all the equipment complies with the highest safety standards and has the same lifespan as the other play equipment in the park.

In the summer, the Council had to remove the slide from the play area, as a routine safety check showed it was damaged and unsafe.

The decided to replace the slide with new play equipment, and also look at whether any other small improvements could be made to improve the quality and accessibility of the Riverside View play area as a whole.

To help the Council to decide on the new play equipment, it set up simple survey for children and young people who use the area. Through the survey, children were able to tell the Council what type of equipment they would like to play on, and give any other views about the site.

The Riverside View Play Area closed on Monday, January 17, to allow works to commence. It is estimated that the work will take approximately three weeks and the newly improved park will reopen soon after.

The contractor is a local business - Streetscape products and services ltd - they have designed and built play areas in places such as Hornsea and as local as Malton - the Rainbow Lane play area.

Councillor Dinah Keal, Chair of Policy and Resources Committee at Ryedale District Council, which is runs the playpark, welcomed the news:

"This is great news. We've been able to work with local residents to get this play area right and meet the needs of many families in the area.

"The vision was clear from the outset, we wanted a play park that could be used by every child.

"We recognise that some children have different accessibility needs and we wanted to ensure they could make use of the play area too.

"I can't wait to visit the play area once it is completed in a few weeks’ time, I know the local community will enjoy it and get a lot of use out of it."