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Looking for employment advice? Job Centre Plus will be offering their mandatory lone parent assessment appointments at Midsomer Norton Children’s Centre every Monday from 9.00am – 2.00pm. There are also drop in sessions available from 2.00pm – 3.00pm. To find out more call your local job centre on 01225 303200 or Midsomer Norton Children’s Centre on 01225 396858.
Free legal and financial advice The Citizens advice bureau will be providing an outreach service for families with children under 11 across the Norton Radstock Children’s Centre area on Thursday mornings: 1st Thursday of the month Peasedown 2nd Thursday of the month Radstock 3rd Thursday of the month Midsomer Norton 4th Thursday of the month - Paulton Jannine can offer advice and support at drop in sessions and appointments. For further information or to book an appointment, please cal Hannah or Alex at Midsomer Norton Children’s Centre on 01225 396858.
Ongoing investment into play areas Work to improve play areas for children and young people will continue over the next few months thanks to investment through Bath & North East Somerset Council. Eighteen local play areas have already been revamped, providing opportunities for children and young people to play safely in their own communities, and between now and the end of March a further 13 areas will be improved. These were selected following applications from local parish councils and community groups. There has been consultation with local communities, including children and young people, to decide how each play area should be developed. Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Cllr Chris Watt, said: “Bath & North East Somerset Council’s work to improve play opportunities is benefiting children, young people and the communities they live in. Having somewhere to play with their friends in their own communities is essential for children and young people. Play provides them with the opportunity to develop so many social skills by interacting with other children and young people.” Work at Wellow has just started and improvements include a new playroute with low mounds and tunnels, as well as the upgrading and linking of existing equipment to new pieces including a buddy swing, rope bridge and spinning see-saw. Work at Sandpits play area in Bath is due to start in late January and will include an embankment slide, buddy swing, informal seating and a series of new activity crossings over the stream, as well as a new roundabout which will be accessible to children with disabilities. Green Park in Bath will see improvement work start at the end of January / early February. This will include an embankment slide, large timber rope and climbing equipment, and a buddy swing. A new entrance into the park will be created with better access from the riverside walk. Work at Kensington Meadows in Bath, to include an embankment slide, large timber
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rope and climbing equipment and a buddy swing, will start at the end of January, as will work at Shoscombe, which will feature a buddy swing, small rope and climb piece and low mounding to create informal play crossings. In Radstock improvements to the Southfield Recreation Ground and Westhill park will start in February, working closely with Norton Radstock Town Council which are funding the play area at Westhill . At Southfield there will be two new areas. The junior area will have grass mounds, sound pipes, and a sand pit with dish roundabout and sand digger. The active area will feature the re-use of a felled Chestnut tree as a play feature, as well as informal bike jumps and rumble strips, a series of grass mounds with wooden bridges and a zip wire. A BMX track is being put in at Westfield and the existing play area is being redeveloped to include a climbing tower with slide, rope ladder and fireman’s pole, cantilever swing, a swing which will be accessible to disabled children, grass mounds with balance beams, and roundabout. There will also be additional tree planting and benches. At Clandown a new multi use games area will be installed by the end of March. Improvement work is currently underway at High Littleton; Hillcrest, Bath; Roundhill Park, Bath; Batheaston and Tunley. Since October 2009, work has already been completed at a number of sites across the area, and children and young people are starting to make the most of the new play opportunities. These include Haydon, Timsbury, Stanton Drew, Paulton, Peasedown and East Harptree. The improvements to these play areas is part of £2.5 million investment into play by Bath & North East Somerset Council. Work on the new £800,000 adventure play park and skatepark for Midsomer Norton is also now underway, which is seeing significant contribution from Norton Radstock Town Council and the Manic Skaterz. The Council is also providing £75,000 towards a new skatepark at Keynsham which is being managed and invested in by Keynsham Town Council. Alongside this work the Council is working to address a range of issues to improve public space for children, young people and the wider communities. There has been close working with the police and community safety wardens to address any issues of anti-social behaviour. For more information about the Play Pathfinder project in Bath & North East Somerset contact pathfinder_enquiries@bathnes.gov.uk. You can also visit the website www.bathnes.gov.uk and select pages on Play Out, Hang Out.
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