Sod turned on Ballivor playground

After many years of campaigning for a playground for Ballivor, there were great celebrations as the sod was turned on the project on Friday morning by Cllr Noel French.

Kompan has been awarded the tender by Meath County Council and aim is to have the playground open by the end of the summer.
A local committee had been trying to secure a playground for the village for many years but finding land to build it on proved to be a major stumbling block. The project finally moved on when Ballivor GAA offered a site and Sue Davis, chair of the Ballivor Playground Committee has expressed their huge gratitude to the GAA for the offer.
However, the council had some issues with the site and instead went on to purchase some land in the centre of the village, next to the Giggles Childcare Centre.
Over €24,000 has been raised by the local committee, with €12,000 of this being raised through Sue Davis’ clothing collections over the last seven or eight years. Another few thousand was raised through their regular kiddie discos.
Sue said they are delighted to see the sod turned on the playground and thanked Cllr French and the councillors who gave some of their discretionary funding.
“It is a dream come true,” said Sue. “We worked hard for it.”
Cllr French said he was delighted and honoured to turn the first sod for the Ballivor Playground. “There are so many people to thank for making this possible- the playground committee, Sue Davis and all who helped during the campaign, the people of Ballivor for supporting the fundraising and the campaign, the playground providers who had to come up with different plans, Ballivor GFC for offering a site - very important contribution there, Dara McGowan, Meath County Council who looked after the site acquisition and helped in lots of ways, CEO of Meath County Council Jackie Maguire, Des Foley, Area Manager, the councillors who provided funding from their discretionary funding, Meath County Council staff and everyone else who helped.”
With the funds the committee raised themselves, the group is putting in extra sensory and special needs equipment and they are appealing to local businesses interested in sponsoring benches or other special needs equipment to get in touch.
The design includes swings, slides. see-saws, a zip line, a castle tower geared towards the under 12s, as well as sensory equipment for children with autism and a wheelchair accessible swing. The playground will be fully fenced and seating and picnic tables are also included.