Council spends £23,000 on a pile of logs

Once upon a time – just a few weeks ago – on entering The Carrs from Wilmslow's Parish Hall, visitors had a beautiful view of rolling parkland and the River Bollin.

But all that greets them now is a hastily relocated "natural play area" made mainly from logs. Not any old logs, mind you, but logs from Norway rather than British forests. Which goes some way to explaining the eye-wateringly high cost of the playground: almost £23,000.*

Does that seem like good value?

As for its bizarre location, last year the Friends of The Carrs organisation reached agreement with the Council to locate the playground much further into the park, near to a picnic area from where mums and dads could keep an eye on their children – and nicely out of the way so that it did not spoil the view. So what went wrong?

Well, the logs and other materials were duly delivered and work began. Almost immediately, however, residents of nearby Bollin Hill complained and the Council promptly acquiesced to move it elsewhere without further discussion.

Hence its current location: guaranteed to be a blot on the landscape and away from both the picnic area and the existing main playground. There were several more sensible choices, including a large grassy area next to the main playground that would have been perfect, but in their apparent haste the Council seem not have even considered it. And that's why we've got the totally daft location of this overpriced white elephant.

Of course, given that The Carrs has acres of grass and rolling woodland, you may be wondering why it was necessary to spend £23,000 on a pile of logs. I was wondering that, too. But at least the dogs seem to like it.

*This figure was quoted to me in a response to a Freedom of Information request.

This is a member post by Graham Beech.

Tags:

Cheshire East Council, The Carrs