Big Lottery Windfall For Dukes Meadows

£250,000 grant to turn playful ideas into reality for Chiswick’s children

Dukes Meadows Trust has been awarded a £250,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund to re-build the derelict play area at Dukes Meadows. The new play ground is set to benefit children aged 8 to 15 of all abilities.

Presenting the cheque to a group of local children who helped design the new playarea, Debbie Pippard Big Lottery Fund Head of Region for London said, "This Playful Ideas grant awarded to the Dukes Meadows Trust will make a real difference to the lives of children in Chiswick. An innovative approach to play will help to engage and build positive relationships with children and young people, not only benefiting them but also their local communities. Through sport and creative arts children will develop new talents, improve their social skills and build their confidence.”

The play area will incorporate natural features such as mounds and hollows. Play equipment will be incorporated into this natural landscape to create an innovative, stimulating play space, in which children can invent their own games. The project is also being supported by the London Marathon Trust, which was the first organisation to support the project, with a grant of £75,000.

Councillor Paul Lynch commented, “I am delighted with the Lottery grant. It is a fitting tribute to the hard work and dedication of the DMT. This plan has been a long time in the making, local youngsters have contributed good ideas, and it should not be too long before those ideas are put to the test in a completed playground. Thanks are also due to the other sponsors, some of whom have helped with earlier projects, and are still contributing. Their support and encouragement has made a real difference.”

Maria Krzyzosiak, the Development Manager of the organisation said,“Everyone involved in planning the project is delighted and excited that we have been awarded the grant. Dukes Meadows Trust is a community based organisation and the brief for the new play area was created with input from children from the local primary school, Cavendish School, and young people and carers from the Croft Centre for disabled children, based nearby in Kew. The play area will compliment the water play area, for younger children, built by Dukes Meadows Trust two years ago."

The presentation was made just moments after Cllr Paul Lynch officially opened the newly planted wild flower garden on the site of the old paddling pools (see photo above left). A real local collaboration, the plants began life in the Kitchen Garden at Chiswick House.

For details of how to get involved or join the trust see www.dukesmeadowstrust.org

October 10, 2008