New play space opens in park

A new natural play space with sand dunes has opened in Jersey.

Coronation Park in St Lawrence has been extended into neighbouring playing fields after plans were approved in April.

The £280,000 project also included footpaths linking the two parks, and new trees and flower beds had been planted, project leaders said. Children ran inside to play as soon as the ribbon was cut.

The government said it was still looking at building a pump track for cyclists and skateboarders on the site, but it needed to do further planning checks before work could begin.

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Infrastructure Minister Jonathan Renouf cut the ribbon on the new space.

He said: "I think what's incredible about this is we have a huge new open public space connected to Coronation Park, so there's a natural flow that people can extend effectively into this area.

"It's a fantastic new play area, amazing new recreational space for islanders, particularly for young people.

"I think what's really nice about it is it's been designed very, very collaboratively with people who are going to use it."

The design of the park was shaped by a consultation with nearly 700 responses, as well as more than 1,000 ideas from children and young people.

"I think it's really inspiring to see that that process has carried through into this final design," Renouf said.

Some of the obstacles in the park are made from trees tunks that fell during recent storms in Jersey.

Jonathan Renouf praised the collaborative effort that went into designing the park [BBC]

The initial plans for the space also included a pump track for bikes and skateboards, but this was not included in the first phase of the work.

Renouf said his department first needed to carry out more safety checks as the park was next to an avenue which people used as an "unregulated crossing" to get to it.

He said: "When we did an initial survey earlier this year, we found about 900 people a day were making that crossing, which is quite a lot of people. Clearly a pump track would add to that.

"I can't put a precise timeline on [the pump track] but I think the sequence will be that we do that work over the next month or two and I would expect there to then be a public consultation on whatever proposals come forward as a result of that."

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