TCL is nearing the end of a multi-faceted £2.5 million project creating play areas, sports facilities and a wetland area in a 150 acre country park in Bedfordshire.
Great Denham Park, devised for David Wilson Homes who are building 2,800 homes over a 12 year period, is an impressive undertaking -and the latest element – a £500,000 Play Hub was officially opened by children from the local school.
The hub itself – which takes up close to an acre and a half of the park – contains a selection of play equipment for toddlers to teenagers including a giant space net and required 500 tonnes of play sand and 4500m2 of turf for its construction.
The key planning and budgeting of the overall park – which was formerly farmland – was carried out for DWH by TCL, with the designs created by landscape architects Golby and Luck. The entire project has involved extensive consultation between TCL, Bedford Borough Council and DWH over the past five years. By the time the three year construction phase finishes the project will have taken eight years to complete.
TCL was also responsible for installing a further 20 play areas, a wetland area which is home to herons and mandarin ducks among other birds and wildlife, a 1.5km cycle way which links into Bedford’s existing cycle network, 2.2 km of gravel footpaths, a BMX track, fitness equipment, six football pitches and a running track.
The coming year will see the completion of a sports pavilion with café and an all weather multi use games area for tennis, basketball and netball on a 1200 sq m all weather pitch.
TCL has been a trusted partner of DWH for many years and this long and happy working relationship helped ensure the two would team up for this complex project.
TCL operations director Jonathan Highley explained: “A project of this size and scope gives us a excellent opportunity to exercise our diverse range of skills and expertise from initial planning, to design concepts, to local authority consultation, to implementation. With a team of specialists, local expertise and national breadth we are confident that this type of multi-faceted project is likely to make up a greater percentage of our portfolio in the coming years.”