Milton Unveils New Inclusive Play Area, Celebrating Accessibility and Community Engagement

At the start of 2024, The Rowans Play Area in Milton included a small amount of uninspiring and aging play equipment, surrounded by loose-fill bark chippings. Before the end of Summer 2024, the Village’s new inclusive and accessible play space was complete, in time to be enjoyed throughout the August school holidays.

The Parish Council had been planning the development of the play area for several years, and after consultations to determine what the local community wanted from the space, they invited play companies to submit design proposals for the playground. It had been identified that there was a lack of inclusive and accessible play opportunities within the other play areas in the Village, and as a result, the key requirement of the brief was that the new design should make the park more accessible for disabled users. eibe previously installed a very popular play area at Milton Community Centre for the Parish Council and were invited along to meet the Council to discuss the upcoming project at The Rowans. We completed a full inventory and analysis of the equipment on-site, and of the surrounding environment before putting together a design proposal for the Council. The design team put together a thoughtful and imaginative design and when the Council evaluated each play company’s submission, eibe’s design was selected as the favourite.

We were very pleased to be chosen as the preferred supplier and began discussions to work with the Council to refine the design. This took some time as we worked to provide as much play value as possible for the budget whilst not compromising on the highest priorities for the new play areas. The final design and new play area includes all-weather rubber safety surfacing, installation of a bucket seat swing seat, a multiplay unit with an accessible ramp and interactive play panels, a hill fort, a climbing net up the hill, and refurbishment of the seesaw and swing frame on-site. We also included a replacement fence, gate, and bin for the play area and installed a root barrier along the edge of the tree line to stop roots from lifting the rubber safety surfacing.

The multiplay unit is a bespoke play unit that was designed to offer children of all abilities the opportunity to play together on the feature item within the play space. It has a shallow gradient access ramp, a low-level climbing ramp, easy access steps, a slide, a climbing ladder, a crawling tunnel, a playhouse feature with windows, a sensory light wheel, and interactive play panels spread across multiple levels of the structure. The structure is made from the same durable timber on steel feet as our Ecorino play range and has a 15-year warranty. The high play value and durability of our timber made this play frame ideal for the play area which required a standout piece with a natural look.

A key feature of the new play area is the surfacing design which is green rubber mulch with bright orange wetpour sections. The wetpour is a visual indicator of the location of the access points onto the equipment, with a path leading from the gate up to the ramp of the multiplay unit and circle sections under the swings and seesaw. The intention is that this helps visually impaired users make their way around the space. The wetpour has also been laid in areas of high wear because solid colour wetpour is the most hard-wearing of the play safety surfaces. This is a feature that has worked really well since the play area officially opened to the public.

Not long after the play area was opened to the public, we supported the Council with goodie bags for an official opening, which was held on a wonderful sunny Thursday in August with lots of very excited children from the Village. eibe Play was privileged to have been a part of the transformation of this play area and especially pleased to have helped provide a play space for all children in Milton. If you would like more information on this project, please let us know!