LAUNCESTON Town Council is again due to consider whether it can take on the ownership/maintenance of a potential play space, now that some provisional funding has been secured.

The Post has previously reported on the Lanstephan Area Play Park group’s plans to transform a site off St Mary’s Road into a play area.

Last year the area was likened to a ‘post-war bomb site’ by residents living nearby.

Since then, the play park group has approached the town council, reporting on progress made on the site, and the group’s intentions.

Town councillors raised concerns at the October meeting about where funding would come from for future maintenance of the proposed play park.

At the time, councillors said any decision on the town council’s position would be put on hold until Cornwall Council gave it more information on the part the local authority was prepared to play.

The town council was due to review its position on the play area at a meeting of the full council, held after the Post went to press on Tuesday, December 15.

It follows a recommendation by the town council’s finance and general purposes committee, which on December 9, heard that the town’s Cornwall Council community link officer, Chris Sims, was engaged in securing funding for the play area.

The minutes of the committee meeting state Mr Sims had secured a provisional sum of £10,000 from Cornwall Council, dependent on the town council being willing to take on ownership/maintenance in the near future.

A sum of £5,000 had been promised from the Rotary Club, and a £15,000 ‘Pocket Park’ bid has been submitted. The minutes also state the town council’s support is needed to make these bids succeed.

Committee chairman Cllr Paul O’Brien, supported the request, and its members agreed.

Those minutes were due to be ratified by the full town council at its meeting on Tuesday night.

Cllr O’Brien told the Post: “It’s an area of the town that’s sadly neglected. The residents’ association are doing a first rate job there and are worthy of support.

“The area needs some support and it might be a nice Christmas present for Lanstephan.”

Iris Lindsay, chairman of Lanstephan Area Play Park group, told the Post the group should hear the outcome of the application for ‘Pocket Park’ funding in January.

She said the plan is for the area to be ‘resurfaced’, with the hope it can eventually become a ‘green area’, but she added ‘we have got to work with the tarmac that’s there’.

“We won’t get anyone to maintain it if there is lots of equipment in there but it will still be a play area with equipment.

“For a long time we thought nothing would happen. We are working with Cornwall Council and hopefully the town council, to turn it into a useable area.

“It is not necessarily going to be a park full of swings and slides, but we will go into consultation with the community on what they want.

“It will be an improvement and something for the whole community to use. We are optimistic it will happen.”

Cornwall Council community link officer Chris Sims said: “The town council are undestandably concerned about taking it on. What the group have tried to look at is how they can improve the site without making it too costly to maintain.

“There is still quite a lot of work to be done, but it is quite a positive step in the right direction.”