You may have seen the exciting news in the Echo and Bitterne Park Info recently that the play area will be getting some new equipment from SCC’s Play Improvement programme during this financial year. We don’t currently know what this will be, so we are continuing to fundraise whilst working closely with SCC staff on ways we can make sure the Rec has the fantastic play area it needs for years to come.

In early July a new application was submitted for a Landfill Tax grant. We’d like to thank Dawn and Matthew from SCC for all their help, time and effort working with us to make sure the deadline was met. We should find out in September if the application was successful, so fingers crossed till then!

Competition for grants is fierce, so in case we are not successful, we are still collecting donations and asking for support wherever we can. Visit Just Giving, or donate straight to our bank account if you can help in any way. Anything you can give would be really appreciated, and the more we can raise, the more we can spend on getting new equipment.

Thank you also to everyone who has signed our petition either online or on paper, and special thanks to our friends at the 29^th Immaculata Scouts, The Drummond and October Books for helping collect signatures. We will give an update about that at our next meeting, 24 June.

We do appreciate all the support from our community and realise it can seem like things aren’t moving very quickly. You may find this item from SCC’s website useful in outlining the long processes that need to be gone through.

Please rest assured your donations are safely ringfenced in our accounts, and that we're working hard alongside the council to get the new equipment that will transform the play area into the vibrant space our children need and deserve.

We will post another update when we know more, but this is unlikely to be before the end of September or early October.

Friends of Portswood Rec, Southampton, UK