COUNCILLORS have agreed to explore the possibility of developing a play area for a Christchurch ward which was left out of a £1.2m revamp of the borough’s facilities.

At last week’s meeting of the council, it was agreed to push ahead with the legacy proposals despite opposition from North Highcliffe and Walkford councillors Sally Derham Wilkes and Nick Geary over the omission.

The issue was raised at Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s scrutiny committee which agreed to explore the development of a play area in the ward following their complaints.

Plans approved by the council would see seven new play areas developed, eight refurbished and 11 removed from across the borough.

Cllr Derham Wilkes told the council that her ward had one “very small underused” play area which had not been included in the legacy project.

An amendment calling on officers to look at the situation in the ward was proposed at the meeting but was narrowly rejected by 11 votes to 10.

However, it was raised by Cllr Lisle Smith at Tuesday’s meeting of the scrutiny committee where it was agreed to formally explore the possibility of play area improvements in the ward separately to the larger project.

She said: “At the full council meeting we put through a fabulous legacy project regarding play projects and there are to be new refurbished play projects.

“However, one ward in particular felt they had severely missed out and I would like to suggest that we look at the possibility of a play park in that area.”

Cllr David Jones raised concerns about the lack of a “readily-available” site in the ward for a play area with time constraints in place due to the uncertainty over local government reorganisation.

However, councillors agreed to explore the issue separately to the larger project with the possibility of joining the two schemes further down the line.