Three mums who led a £60,000 campaign to bring their local park back to life celebrated its official opening at the weekend.
Well Road Park in Buckie used to be popular spot for youngsters, but it became run down and unused after the last piece of play equipment was removed by the council a decade ago.
Local mums Rachel Cormack, Gail Imlach and Michelle Gauld decided to breathe some new life into the area and launched a massive fundraising campaign to get new equipment.
With the help of donations and grants from local groups and organisations, the modern park has now reopened and is already proving to be a hit.
Mrs Gauld is delighted to see children already playing happily in the park, and said: “It was a bit surreal when I went down and saw kids there playing. I’m really proud that we had managed to achieve what we set out to do a year-and-a-half ago.
“The park took a lot of work and there were a few stressful moments but we got there in the end.
“We got really lucky with some of the funding we received from the six or seven local funding groups and organisations.”
Well Road Park now has an array of equipment including basket swings, a large climbing frame and a hurricane swing, ensuring plenty of fun for children of all ages.
Mrs Gauld believes that it will have a huge impact on the Buckie community, and especially the Millbank Primary School catchment area.
She said: “This will have a huge impact on everyone in the neighbourhood as the only other two close parks are across two main roads so this park will make a big difference.
“I only live two minutes away and now we have a secure area to play in.
“There are a lot of kids around with the Millbank School having around 300 children so that is an incredible amount of kids who can get a lot of use out of the park.”
