It was expected that the proposed new children’s play park on Chippenham would have seen a spade in the earth by 2019, but this deadline is now fast disappearing.

A planning application for the 1,350 square metre play area (DM/2019/0133) was submitted only last month and the delay was explained at Monday night’s town council meeting.

Chairing the meeting, Councillor Richard Roden said he too was "very disappointed by the lack of progress" and read out an email from Mike Moran which explained that a tree survey had to be carried out by Broadway Mann Tree Services to accompany the application.

A detailed play area layout for the area has not been submitted as the county council wanted to hold an "engagement event" in the town to agree on a preferred layout.

The plan to relocate the play park from the present 1960’s site to another area on Chippenham is not without risk as Village Green Consent would have to be granted by the Welsh Government, which could take up to two years.

But supporters of the scheme said the close proximity of the present site to the A40 meant that the air quality was never going to be acceptable for a children’s play park.

Another reason for the delay was that it was not the only Chippenham related matter as the county planners are also dealing with the proposal for a new stand on the sportsground which also requires planning permission (planning application reference DM/2019/00244).

The play park plan incorporates three 13 metre 1.2 metre high panels on the opposite side to the line of trees , which the survey identified as needing ’crown lifting’ to give three metres of clearance underneath.

In 2016, Monmouthshire County council (MCC) announced they had £85k to invest "in new play equipment and safety surfacing in Chippenham Mead" and despite calls for an alternative site, the local authority intended to proceed with the refurbishment works on the play area in its existing location.

The decision to refurbish was criticised by groups, including the Friends of Chippenham Mead claiming that a better solution would be to create a new one at the other end of the park, close to Waitrose.

However MCC said the area closer to the embankment would offer more space in which to develop the play area;  "it requires no advance site works, no loss of trees and no footpath diversions, is a more "open" and easily viewed site, so it’s safer for children; it does not affect other users of the village green and in particular it does not involve the loss of any sports pitches," added Mr Moran.

They also increased the allocation of housing development money available to £102,196 and the deadline for spending the S106 monies was extended to August 2021.

At Monday’s meeting, it was revealed by Mr Moran that the county council established a budget to cover the £17k legal fees, "as we felt it important to protect the funding available for the project so that this can be directed at the play area installation works when we have the necessary consents in place, rather than a significant proportion of this being spent on legal fees."