Work is set to begin on enhancing a city park with new sporting facilities
Artist impression of how the PlayZone in Bude Park, Hull, will look(Image: Hull City Council)
Work is about to begin on creating a new PlayZone at a Hull park. News of the development of two PlayZones for the city was first announced in the summer of 2024, when sites at Bude Park and East Park were confirmed.
Hull City Council has now appointed contractor Cleveland Land Services Limited to deliver the PlayZone at Bude Park. The facility will feature an enclosed, floodlit 20x30m 3G pitch with markings for both football and netball.
Bude Park’s PlayZone is benefitting from 75 per cent grant funding from the Premier League, The FA and Government’s Football Foundation, together with grant funding from the Crime Prevention Fund. It complements wider regeneration works at the park, including the installation of new football facilities, pavilion and splash pad.
Works are due to begin on Monday, March 9. Cllr Rob Pritchard, portfolio holder for culture and leisure at the council, said: “This is an exciting development in the PlayZone project within the city.
“PlayZones will provide high-quality affordable and safe outdoor sports and leisure activities and help to meet the council’s ethos of promoting an active and healthy lifestyle.” The PlayZone will be available to book for public leisure use, while the council will work in partnership with organisations and community groups such as Tigers Trust and Child Dynamix to deliver sessions on the PlayZone.
Bude Park was identified as a site that matched the Football Foundation’s PlayZone programme’s aims of tackling inequalities for people with disabilities or long-term illness, communities with higher levels of deprivation, targeting positive outcomes for women and girls and BAME groups, as well as physical activity. The facility, its location and use were the subject of community engagement.
Robert Sullivan, chief executive of the Football Foundation, said: “When it comes to tackling the greatest inequalities to becoming active, the Football Foundation knows a ‘one-size fits all’ approach doesn’t work. That’s why community engagement is at the heart of our PlayZones programme.
“As with all PlayZones, the new facility at Bude Park has been shaped by the local community in Hull who’ll be able to step out onto the pitch and get active in a way that suits them. Thanks to the funding we receive from our partners – the Premier League, The FA and Government, the Foundation will be delivering over 200 PlayZones like this one across the country.”
A planning application is also in place for a PlayZone at East Park to replace the unused MUGA adjacent to Woodford Leisure Centre.
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