Kids thrilled by new Staindrop play park

THE second phase of Staindrop's new playground was opened on Saturday amid children’s squeals of joy.
The opening brought to an end five years of fundraising and organising by a small group of parents from the village, supported by Staindrop Parish Council.
More than 60 people attended the event, including county councillors George Richardson and James Rowlandson who contributed £15,000 of their neighbourhood budget to the development.
Seven-year-old Poppy Astrop and eight-year-old Tom Curran did the honours of cutting a ribbon to open the park, while parish council chairman David Reed paid tribute to their mothers Amanda Astrop and Emma Curran who spearheaded the fundraising activities.
He said: “As well as contributing towards the capital costs, the parish council will now take over responsibility for the ongoing maintenance and insurance of the playground, one of the services we provide for our local community which sometimes go unsung.”
For her part Ms Astrop said: “We wanted to create a park for children of all ages in the village and their families to enjoy and we are absolutely thrilled that we have been able to achieve that. It’s been wonderful in recent days to see the reactions of children as they see the new play equipment for the very first time. To hear the ‘wow’s’ and the ‘that’s so cool’ has been really fantastic and has made all of our hard work really worth it.”