KINGSWEAR Parish Council have finally agreed to buy, install and maintain play equipment in Jubilee Park.

The playground question has plagued the council for more than two years with tensions running high throughout the council and the village.

At the meeting on Thursday, July 14, Councillor Mike Trevorrow said he was ‘deeply ashamed to be part of a council that is so niggling and miserable in its community that it will not allow a small children’s playground to be placed in a place where one of its former councillors had asked for it to be placed and who bought the land for that to happen.’

This comment was greeting with thunderous applause from members of the public attending the meeting.

Cllr Jonathan Hawkins said that there had been three public meetings and each public meeting ‘clearly showed the will of the village’ to raise the money for a small playground for Jubilee Park.

Colin Lang, landlord of the Ship Inn, said: ‘Can this please stop? It’s ripping the village apart, its nitpicking over nothing, the decision was made honestly and legally with everyone in this village taking part.

‘There are councillors up there who quite frankly are a disgrace. You are ripping the village apart over nothing. You are councillors there to represent us, not you.’

Later in the meeting, the parish council noted the letter from Foot Anstey from August 2015, which advised that the parish council should take ownership of the playground equipment and then insured it themselves.

Cllr Lucy Payne worried that the positioning of the playground under trees would lead to it becoming slippery or require more regular maintenance.

Cllr Trevorrow said that although they might need ‘to keep our eye on it and if needs be needs to be scrubbed over from time to time’, but that if it was positioned anywhere else, it would be ‘likely to create problems with other people who use the creek for regatta, fun days, for Shakespeare and so on’.

Cllr Hawkins said: ‘We have consulted this village and we have been discussing this now for well over two years. The by far the majority of this community want the play area, for which £30,000 has been raised by the community with events over the last 18 months.’

Cllr Payne suggested a Trim Trail - pieces of equipment that can be installed and used for fitness. Cllr Hawkins suggested that this was a good idea in addition to the playground and that the council should look into that after the playground had been installed.

Chair of the council Cllr Henshaw then proposed that the parish council buys, insures and maintains play equipment in the park.

With an amendment from Cllr Hawkins to state that the parish council purchase the play equipment that had been approved using the funds raised by Kingswear Combined Charities to be able to claim back the VAT and then install, insure and maintain the equipment.

This was then, eventually, voted unanimously by the parish council. Cllr Hawkins then proposed that the play equipment was ordered ‘with all haste’ and goes forward as fast as possible. He said: ‘We’ve all had some very unpleasant last couple of years, lets put this now behind us and move forward as one council for the benefit of all of the community.’

This was again met with thunderous applause from the public gallery.