Community helps playcentre cover $32k bill for new fence

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Woodend Playcentre health and safety officer Erin Inwood and her nephew Oakley Cartwright, 2,...
Woodend Playcentre health and safety officer Erin Inwood and her nephew Oakley Cartwright, 2, play near the new fence. PHOTO: JOHN COSGROVE
A 30-year-old metal fence caused a $32,000 headache for a Canterbury playcentre until a Lions club stepped up to help replace it.

Thirty years ago the Woodend Playcentre was built at the back of the Woodend Community Hall to replace the previous building which had burnt down.

The fence was deemed unfit for purpose by the Ministry of Education 30 years on - and had to be replaced.

"We were facing a $32,000 bill for a new metal fence, simply because the railings went horizontal and were mounted on the inside not the outside, and were not vertical pickets," said the playcentre's health and safety officer Erin Inwood.

"The ministry visited us and said we needed to replace it because a child could climb up and over it, using the railings as a ladder.

"It’s been there for 30 years and no child has ever thought of climbing over it."

Inwood said over the years they have had many children who liked to try and abscond and yet none had ever attempted to scale the walls.

Faced with a huge bill for the construction of the new wall, the parents approached Lions clubs in the district.

"We raised $17,000 and they (Lions Club of Woodend Pegasus) gratefully donated the remaining $15,000, plus $4000 for new playground bark."

Lions Club of Woodend Pegasus secretary Ian Lennie said the club worked on the project with help from other Lions clubs in the district.

"The playcentre approached the Lions Club of Rangiora and they talked to us.

"We decided to adopt the project, eventually providing over $20,000 in support."

Lennie said the Lions love to support this type of community project.

"They reached out and we were in a position to help. We like doing that," he says.

The funding came from the Lions Clubs of Rangiora, Woodend and Pegasus Lions Clubs and the Lloyd Morgan Lions Clubs Charitable Trust.

The Woodend Playcentre added the final touches to the project on Saturday by laying the new playground bark.