Showtime

Trade magazines are useful barometers, they reflect the health of the industry they serve. You are about to read the biggest edition of The Landscaper for over two years. This is because advertising volumes have increased as confidence returns to the market. There is much to read, playgrounds, sprayers and a bumper news section.

This month’s edition also serves as a guide to the Hard Landscaping & World of Paving Show to be staged at the Ricoh Arena Coventry on the 24th and 25th of March. It’s certainly a show worth a visit ( if you register in advance you will be treated to a free breakfast) if you turn to page 23 you will see the organisers have been able to attract a really wide and varied range of exhibitors. Make sure you visit stand F19 –our editorial and marketing team will be delighted to meet you.

Have a good month.

David Curtis
editor
David.curtis@metropolis.co.uk

Front cover

Nestling in amongst the natural landscape and surrounded by the majestically tall pines of Gnoll Park in Neath, South Wales sits a finely refurbished play area full of careful landscaping amid adventurous and challenging products.
Neath Port Talbot has once again employed one of the UK’s leading play area designers, Wicksteed Playscapes, to refurbish the play area.

This popular playground was in desperate need of redesign and refurbishment as the area had sadly become a rather damp, dark and unwelcoming place.

Wicksteed’s creative team designed a wonderful playscape which has totally transformed the site into a bright, exciting and welcoming space.

The rejuvenation of the space has meant an enticing, yet fundamentally natural area, has been realised, complete with the perfect balance of attractive and stimulating play equipment.

Installation of new play equipment such as The Buccaneer Tower with Mizzenmast from Wicksteed’s Netscapes range dominates the playscape and immediately evokes the sort of adventures the kids in Swallows & Amazons experienced. The freedom of spirit and feeling of new discoveries children used to take for granted has been recreated in this little part of Neath. There’s a timber agility Fun ‘n’ Fitness trail, Cableway swing and a wide, undulating revetment, too, installed in the softly crunchy, bark-covered site ~ offering something for everyone in a most tranquil and natural environment.

Councillor Manny Loaring, who was one of those attendant at the official opening of the play area, commented: “Play areas such as this are a real asset to the community and a definite enhancement to the Country Park.”

The local community certainly welcomes the regeneration of this play area which sits alongside a younger age play site completed earlier in the year.

For more information on this and other landscaped and product installation projects from Wicksteed log onto their website www.wicksteed.co.uk or contact one of the team on 01536 517028