EVRA Eaton Green Playground Project

Update March 2021: Work to install the new accessible roundabout at Eaton Green has been completed and it is ready for use. It has already received its first riders and and will be a great addition to the park. . Good to see this project finished following three years of fundraising.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the £8900 raised for this.

Finished roundabout ready to use

Here is a day-by-day view of the work.

Day 1- Setting out the footings for the Roundabout
Day 2 – Digging out the rest of the footings and installing the edging
Day 3 – Roundabout in place
Day 4 – Foundation layer for safety surface laid
Day 5 – safety surface being laid

Update December 2020: Good News! The roundabout for Eaton Green Playground has been ordered by the City Council and should be installed in February next year. It has taken EVRA nearly three years to raise the money for the roundabout through our Family Fun Days, donations from residents and local organisations and businesses and a grant from Pledge Norwich. We were ready to place an order back in March but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed this.

The roundabout will cost £8909 to supply and install and EVRA has donated the money to Norwich City Council who have ordered the equipment. The roundabout is wheelchair friendly which means that it is set in the ground to provide a level surface for ease of access – see photo below. Much of the cost is for the groundworks to provide a firm base and a safety surface around the area. Norwich City Council will maintain the roundabout which will be covered by their insurance.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the EVRA Eaton Green Playground Project. It has been a long haul but it is great to know that we will have another piece of play equipment at Eaton Green for children to enjoy. There are still some funds remaining in our playground account which we will put towards further pieces of equipment. We will continue raising funds and hope that in 2021 we will be able to organise events such as the Fun Day which make a significant contribution towards funding of our projects.

Update September 2020: The purchase of the new roundabout for Eaton Green Playground was paused because of the Coronavirus pandemic and the resources at City Hall being diverted to deal with this. We have asked the play Areas Officer to restart the procurement and are awaiting information on when this might happen.

Update January 2020: The EVRA Committee have been raising funds for the next stage of our refurbishment of the Eaton Green Playground which is to buy an integrated roundabout – one that also takes wheelchairs. We are pleased to tell you that we have now raised the £8800 required and are asking the City Council to proceed with the purchase of this. We will keep you posted on progress but hope that we will have a roundabout at the playground by the summer if not sooner. Here is a photo of the type of roundabout we will purchase – the colour may be different.

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Our original target of £7000 for the roundabout proved to be insufficient. Being wheelchair-friendly the roundabout requires a level surface with the surrounding area and this involves more extensive groundworks than we had envisaged. EVRA had raised £5600 towards this and the City Council’s Pledge Norwich had offered £1400 to enable us to reach £7000. Pledge Norwich has since increased their offer to £2195 based on the revised cost. We thank Pledge Norwich for their support and for re-assessing our application to take account of the increased cost.

We also received last Thursday a donation of £1000 from the Cringleford Singers which they have raised from recent concerts. We are grateful to the Cringleford Singers and their leader, Margaret Smith, for including our Playground Project as one of their causes to support for 2019. The Cringleford Singers support local projects and other good causes and have raised around £50,000 over the years. Here is a photo of Margaret Smith presenting the cheque to Chris Stebbing:

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The above donations taken together with the EVRA funds means that we have secured the £8800 required for the equipment.

We wish to add further equipment and a nest swing and an extension to the climbing tower are our next targets and will cost around £12000 in all. So fundraising continues and we will purchase equipment when the funds are available. Your help in raising around £10600 to date through support for our events has been marvellous. We welcome ideas for fundraising activities and would be grateful for any support you can give to make these happen. You can contact us via email at: evra.vc@live.co.uk or call us on Norwich 503301 or pop a note into our mailbox at Waitrose which is next to the cash machine.

Chris Stebbing EVRA Chairman – January 2020

Update July 2019: It looks like we made at least £500 from our Family Fun Day, garage sales, Cake Sales and other donations during the recent Scarecrow weekend. This puts us within reach of the £7000 needed to buy an integrated roundabout for Eaton Green Playground and we are in discussion with the City Council on how we can now take this forward. An integrated roundabout is one that can also take wheelchairs.
EVRA had raised £2800 towards the roundabout and recently received £1000 from the Tesco Blue Token Scheme. Together with the £500 from last weekend that gives us a balance of £4300.
Pledge Norwich offered us £1400 if we achieved 80% our £7000 target ie £5600.The EVRA Committee at its last meeting agreed to allocate the balance of £1300 from our account to make the amount up to £7000.
We ask residents to donate more than their £1 subscription to support EVRA Projects and many of you have done that. The Eaton Green Playground is our major project so we are funding the balance from those additional receipts.
Still a little way to go to procure the roundabout, request the funding from Pledge Norwich and install this but hopefully this will not take too long. We will provide an update when we have further information.

Update April 2019: Good News! We have been accepted by Pledge Norwich for a share of the £35,000 Community Infrastructure Levy for our Eaton Green Playground Project. We have been pledged £1400 which is 20% of our project to purchase an integrated roundabout for the park. We still have to raise the remaining £5600 cost of this by April 2020 in order to receive the money. We have already raised £2800 and should receive a further contribution of at least £1000 from the current Tesco bags of help scheme after that finishes at the end of April. With our Family Fun day and other events planned for this year and your help we should be able to achieve our target. An integrated roundabout can also be used by wheelchair users so would be a great addition to our playground. Our next targets are a nest swing and an extension to the climbing tower.

You can read about Pledge Norwich on their website at: https://www.norwich.gov.uk/pledge

Update September 2018:  The equipment installed at Eaton Green Playground last year has been very well used during our hot summer. Residents tell us it is a lively place after school and weekends! Our next target is to raise £7000 for a Roundabout. Our fundraising continues and we have raised around half this through donations and EVRA events including:

  • The EVRA Family Fun Day at a busy Cellar House garden raised £226. Thank you to Victoria and Graham and their team at the Cellar House for hosting this. Also thank you to all the helpers on the day who worked hard to set up, run the stalls and help tidy away.
  • Elaine, Esther and Katy through their cake sales and Grace with her Guess the name of the Teddy competition raised over £140 during the Scarecrow weekend
  • £100 raised from Garage Sale entry fees
  • We are just about to receive £562 from the Waitrose July green token scheme and also a donation from Dragonfly Lettings

Update March 2018: It is good to see the new play equipment being used and children and families enjoying themselves. Our Project Team led by Sharon continues to submit bids for funding and is working with the City Council to upgrade the playground as soon as possible. The next item of equipment we would like to purchase is a roundabout.

A Quiz and Puddings evening organised by St Andrew’s Church on 24th February 2018 raised £338 for the playground Fund. We thank Andrea and the team at St Andrew’s Church for organizing the quiz and making the delicious puddings.

Update 5th September 2017: The latest issue of the Just regional magazine for Eaton and Cringleford includes articles on our recent upgrade to the Eaton Green playground an our Scarecrow Festival and Fun day. You should have received a copy at home but you can also read it online here or via their website at: http://www.justregional.co.uk/eaton-cringleford/

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Update 25th July 2017: Installation of the new climbing tower and toddler swing has been completed and the playground is now fully up and running in time for the school holidays. Children are already making good use of the new equipment. There is now a lot more to do for all the family at Eaton Green Playground and it is a good spot for an outing and a picnic without having to travel far.

Still more to do to raise funds for further items such as a roundabout, a nest swing and some more equipment for toddlers such as springers. The EVRA Playground team are working with the City Council to plan further enhancements as well as seeking funding for these. If you would like to help through organising a fund raising event then please get in touch with Chris Stebbing  at email: evra.vc@live.co.uk or phone 503301 and we can discuss this with you.

Here are some photos of the newly installed equipment:

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Update 17th July 2017: Exciting News! Work started today to install the climbing tower and toddler swing at Eaton Green Playground. The posts are being set in place for the tower and the swing frame but it will take a few days for the concrete to cure and the site ready for the final tasks. The equipment will remain fenced-off until it is ready for use. On Friday the installers will return to lay the safety surface around the new equipment and it should be ready for use over the weekend.

Here are some photos taken today of the work in progress:

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Please be aware that it is not safe to use the new equipment until it has been fully installed and signed off by the City Council.

Update 6th June 2017: Good News! The climbing tower has been ordered and will be installed at Eaton Green Playground during week commencing 17th July – just in time for the summer holidays. A double toddler swing provided by the City Council will be installed at the same time. The City Council will be replacing the fencing around the playground but we do not yet have a date for that work.

The climbing tower will be a single tower as per the PDF below but with a steel slide, steps and rock wall. Safety matting will be laid around the tower and the new swing. Here is the plan for the tower (Children not included- Residents will have to provide their own children.). Eaton Green Woodland Tower

We are meeting with the City Council play Areas Officer this week to agree where the tower and swing will be located at the playground. We will allow for a possible extension to the tower and also consider where other equipment could be located in future. The spoil from the tower installation will be retained on-site for use in future projects such as a play mound. The football goal and area in front of this will not be affected by this work.

Our fundraising continues and a roundabout is on the list for our next purchase. We raised £58 from donations at the recent Dyke Dipping sessions on Marston Marsh and will use the proceeds from the Family Fun day on 16th July for the project. Several residents have offered to have cake sales over the scarecrow weekend (15th/16th July) to raise funds and the fees for the Garage Sale will also go towards the project. If you have any ideas for fund raising then please get in touch with Chris at evra.vc@live.co.uk or with Carol at carolie@hotmail.co.uk.

Update March 2017: Sharon Atkinson and her team continue to make progress on the project for the upgrading of the Eaton Green Playground. To install the ideal range of new play equipment and replace the fence could cost around £62,000. The City Council has agreed to contribute £15,775 from CIL and S106 funds to replace the fencing. We have raised sufficient funds through your donations and other grants to purchase a climbing tower and are proceeding with this. We thank Gordon Barber for their recent donation of £250. Fundraising continues and during these challenging times we will procure pieces of equipment as funds allow rather than aim for a “big bang” approach

Update May 2016: We have so far received donations of more than £1200 towards the Eaton Green Playground Project and still have several payments to process.  Norwich City Council have pledged around £12000 towards the project and donations have also been received from other donors amounting to about £14000 in total. We have submitted applications for grants to several charities and bodies and are waiting to hear back from them.

Please keep sending those donations as they will help us achieve our aims of updating the playground at Eaton Green.

We are really grateful for these as they help to demonstrate the support of the community in our bids to other funding bodies.

We will keep you posted on progress on donations and the project.

You can send donations with your EVRA subscription but you can also pay these directly into the EVRA bank account. Information on how to do this can be found in the Playground Leaflet: Eaton Green Playground leaflet

Eaton Green Playground Project – Update March 2016: Sharon Atkinson and her team have made good progress on the planning for the upgrading of the Eaton Green Playground. There have been several meetings with the City Council to confirm arrangements and gain approvals for EVRA to go ahead with the upgrade. We know that it could cost around £62,000 to supply and install the new play equipment and replace the fencing around the site. The City Council will make a significant contribution from development levy funds but EVRA will still have to find a substantial sum. We know of many charities, trusts and other funds that support projects such as ours and we are preparing submissions to bid for contributions. There is a lot of work required to prepare the submissions which all have different requirements. However, we have been beavering away and are confident that we will be successful.

You will have received with the Spring 2016 newsletter a flyer about the Eaton Green Playground project which provides further information and sets out how you can help the project, either through giving your time or by making a donation towards the project. Please take time to read this and offer help for this project.

Here is the leaflet issued with the Spring Newsletter:

Eaton Green Playground leaflet

We are planning several events and activities over the summer to help raise funds for the project. Some of these will take place over the Scarecrow Festival Week-end. Further details will available in our Summer Events flyer to be delivered with the Parish Summer School brochure. Details will also be posted on our website and on Facebook.

Playground Project Update August 2015

You will have seen in our Autumn 2014 Newsletter that the Association has initiated a project to look at improving the Eaton Green playground in the Village.

We kicked-off our Playground Project last year with a survey of residents as to what they thought about the existing play areas in Eaton Village and what sort of things they would like to see at a re-vamped Eaton Green play area.

We also engaged Eaton Primary School in the design process. All children got involved in designing their ideal playground based on the survey results and the school selected the best design from each class. Chris Stebbing attended school assembly at end of May 2015 to present prizes to the winners.

We have used the results of that survey and the ideas from the children to produce a brief to seek designs from play equipment providers for the Eaton Green play area. Several suppliers of playground equipment will be visiting the site during early August to look at the area and submit proposals based on various levels of equipment.  The quotations from suppliers will tell us what the likely cost will be and we will need to seek funding from various bodies for this. We will be working with the City Council to progress the playground project.

Here is a map of playgrounds within Eaton Village

EVRA area map 2013 with playgrounds updated May 2013

Eaton Play area Map Feb 2013