Plans to create a £300,000 community sports village within Macclesfield's South Park have been unveiled.

Macclesfield Borough Council is working in partnership with the Friends of South Park to transform part of the 17-hectare site with play, sport, recreational social and community opportunities.

The sports village will create, a £150,000 BMX and skate park, a multi-use games area, an improved play area, and the pavilion will be converted into a community and youth café, which will also involve staff from The Hub, a youth drop-in service in Macclesfield provided by Connexions.

The main project will be the 659-square metre concrete skate park, to be built by contractor Wheelscape Skate and Ride, which will go before Macclesfield Borough Council's Planning Committee in mid-March. The choice and design of the skate park was guided by members of the Macclesfield Skate Group.

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MBC's Parks Technical Officer Marianne Hodgkinson said: "I was delighted with the input from both the Friends and the skate group when I started working on this project last September, as I knew the activity had a huge following in Macclesfield and there were no facilities for them. The Park was also not being used as well as it could be."

The multi-use games area will include facilities for five-a-side football, basketball and tennis, seven new benches around the bandstand and the Cherry Tree Walk have been installed, and a new picnic area by the pool is due this Spring.

The investment has come from some £200,000 of community funds to spend in the area, £50,000 from the Government's Playbuilder Fund to improve the play area, £19,000 from the Macclesfield Partnership for a Safer Borough, and £1,500 from the Macclesfield Borough Council Grants Panel for equipment. There are also plans to designate a sports development officer to work with the community.

(CD/JM)