A FACILITY has finally re-opened for the children of Aspatria after St Mungo’s Park was made safe.

After safety issues were raised and the play area closed, the town council had to make the decision if it would be able to have the work done or if it would have to close the play area permanently.

Over the years the play area has been well used and when it started to deteriorate vandals made it worse and the council was forced to fence the area off.

Aspatria Town Council has faced considerable expenses in the last few months and acting mayor Alan Maxwell said they were threatening to drain the town’s reserves.

Mr Maxwell said: “The children need somewhere to play and we have done that.

“It has cost a lot of money but with Covid-19 we have been forced to cancel a number of events which has helped us pay for the work. The contractors who did the work have done a fantastic job and it will last for years.

“We opened it last Friday and it is now in full use.”

The acting mayor made a visit to the park to see how it was holding up he continued: “I went along over the weekend to see if everything was okay, there were families there with their children and everything was fine.

“We have put notices up to remind people about social distancing and keeping safe, we have also said that the children must be supervised.

“One parent told me we had done an amazing job and has given the council praise for the work. It’s excellent and the children are loving it but most importantly we’re here for Aspatria.”