Marlborough Town Council
Update on play area
At Rabley Wood View
Additional landscaping is ongoing by GreenSquareAccord’s (GSA) landscapers to lay turf on areas adjacent to play equipment where the seeding previously has not taken. This is supported by Marlborough Town Council’s (MTC) grounds team who are ensuring the turf is watered throughout the dry weather.
Some of the trees and hedging have also not taken. This forms part of the development agreement requiring Wiltshire Council sign off, and new trees will now be resupplied by GSA, stored at the MTC workshop and replanted by MTC at a suitable time later in the year.
On 1 July, the Town Clerk and Grounds Manager met with GreenSquareAccord’s officer and the ROSPA inspector to monitor progress and assess the status of the completion and transfer of the play area to the Town Council. The play area requires a satisfactory ROSPA report for Wiltshire Council to sign it off according to the development agreement. Only at this point can the play area be taken on by Marlborough Town Council and its insurers.
A snagging list was agreed for the play area which included a number of small remedial works to fixings, and some sanding to the logs. MTC has undertaken to fix these issues.
The situation has not been helped by someone removing (stealing) two hinge bolts from a piece of play equipment. These must be replaced like for like and MTC is actively seeking the parts.
Anyone seen damaging the play equipment should please be reported to MTC or the Police.
The main issue is that the tunnel feature in its current landscaping arrangement will not reconcile with ROSPA and HSE requirements. As no obvious solution could be identified it was agreed to remove the tunnel, which will be done by MTC next week. The mound where it is located will be landscaped to form a natural feature. At a later date when the whole area has matured and the landscaping embedded the Town Council will see whether the tunnel can be repurposed in another place.
There is now an agreed target date of 16 July to reconvene with the ROPSA inspector and have them sign the play area off.
Once the play area is signed off by ROSPA the legal transfer of the play area, along with Hawthorn Meadow, will be executed as soon as possible.