Creative Play Solutions win the ALCI Award for Ballina Town Park
Another National Award for an Irish owned Playground Company, Creative Play Solutions
On the 17th October in the Titanic Belfast, Creative Play Solutions took home an award for their design and installation of a playground in Ballina Town Park, Co. Mayo.
The Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland (ALCI), Landscape Awards, known as the Oscars of the landscaping industry, pay tribute to ALCI members who demonstrate exceptionally high standards of professionalism and skill in the execution of a wide variety of landscape projects.
This is the second ALCI Award Creative Play Solutions has received in consecutive years. Christy Hanbury, managing director and designer for this project, gives a bit more detail on the award winning playground:
“This was a design and build project where the client requested a natural playground to complement the surrounding landscape. The site at Ballina was the old town dump and it had an existing playground which had run into disrepair. The challenge here was to create a modern and exciting play area for a large town. We were asked to create an unique design as every playground around was very urban, boxy and lacked challenge. We used crooked Robinia wood for most of the play items and we created a man made hill to set our unique hillslide play unit on.
It was important to both the customer and ourselves that the playground be accessible to everyone and this was achieved through installing special play equipment which is suitable for all inclusive play. Equipment such as the Wheelchair Accessible Roundabout, Mirage Swing Seat for special needs and Basket Nest Swing were specifically chosen to suit this brief. We included an extra wide slide on the Main Play Structure which allows an adult to accompany small and disabled children down the slide.
An element of landscaping was required for the playground to complement the existing park layout. The Client wanted a low maintenance surface and we used the Tiger Mulch to good effect on this as it looks extremely natural and has virtually no maintenance.”
The judges were Gary Graham, Bloom Manager, DME Amenity Horticulture Bord Bia and John McCullen, retired Chief Parks Superintendent, OPW. They awarded marks on a variety of criteria, including the use of plants and hard landscaping material, the extent of challenges faced by the landscaper in completing the work and the overall impression and quality of the scheme.
In assessing the Public Authority Award, the judges were very impressed by the creative design and high play value offered to children within the playground.
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