INITIAL work to refurbish Verdin Park play area is to begin within weeks, Northwich Town Council has confirmed.

The first steps will be to remove the existing play equipment, which is due to take place over the next few weeks.

Work to refurbish the play equipment is being funded by a £75,000 grant awarded to Northwich Town Council by Veolia Environmental Trust in January.

This is something which the town council has actively been pushing for some time.

At this month’s town council meeting, town clerk Chris Shaw said: “All equipment for the new play area at Verdin Park has been fabricated and delivered to the installer ready for installation.

“I am waiting on the installer to confirm a start date and these works will start.

“Existing equipment will be taken out over the next few weeks.”

After the council secured the grant to carry out the works, Cllr Andrew Cooper said: “It is fantastic that we will now be able to proceed with the first phase of the refurbishment of play facilities at Verdin Park.

“With the existing facilities at Verdin now feeling quite dated compared to the other parks in town, we’ve been anxious to make progress on this for some time.

“With the award of this grant, combined with developer contributions from Winnington Urban Village, we’ll finally be able to get started on this and make it something we can be proud of.”