Replacing play equipment at Paddy Freemans' Park Newcastle

Paddy Freemans’ Park is a much loved park in High Heaton, Newcastle. It has a popular playpark promoting wellbeing for families, nursery and school children from across the city, not to mention a safe place for families and patients from the nearby world famous Freeman Hospital to spend quality time together. The Friends of Paddy Freemans have been fundraising for the last 6 months to replace and restore play equipment Newcastle City Council can sadly no longer afford.

Building on the success of the 'save our ship' fundraising campaign, where we raised over £6000 to replace the beloved Paddy's pirate ship in the play park we are now turning our attention to other play equipment which needs to be replaced.

Stolen 'Dancing Bells'

Our first port of call is to replace stolen 'dancing bells' which were in the sensory play park for visually impaired children. These were stolen late 2017 and we are furious about it; we would like to replace them as soon as possible. We estimate this will cost approximately £5000.

We've been in the news

This story has received a lot of attention locally, we're not the only ones who are disgusted by this theft: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-tyne-43349064/thieves-steal-musical-squares-from-newcastle-park

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/appeal-replace-musical-squares-disabled-14396846

Repair / rebuild other equipment the Council can no longer afford

We have set the target as £10,000 so that we can restore the dancing bells and use additional funds to repair/ rebuild other deteriorating play equipment. The play park has many other pieces of equipment which are reaching the end of their lifespans and we will use every penny raised to ensure the park remains at the heart of this community.

The Friends of Paddy Freemans is a local community group led by Chair Jim Patterson and other members of the community. Fundraising is being conducted in partnership with Newcastle East Councillors and Park Rangers from Newcastle Council Parks and Countryside Services. You can find out more about the park and what we do www.friendsofpaddyfreemans.co.uk or on our facebook page. Email contact: friendsofpaddyfreemans@gmail.com.

THANKYOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!