The proposal to build a new playground on Chippenham Mead rather than refurbish the old one has taken a new turn.

£85,000 of housing development money is on the table to refurbish the present playground on the Village Green adjacent to Monmouth School, but a group called The Friends of Chippenham Mead have put an alternative proposal of a new site, further away from the A40 and having a more visible presence nearer to the new Monnow Bridge.

Site D, adjacent to the parking area on the Sportsground, was identified by the group as the preferred location as sports societies confirmed there would be no objections.

However concerns over access for emergency vehicles to the pitches on Chippenham was one of the reasons for a decision to now opt for a move closer to Chippenham Court retirement flats, and has been identified by Mike Moran, Community Infrastructure Co-ordinator for Monmouthshire County Council (MCC), as being the only alternative site to be considered now.

He agrees there may be some marginal cost savings with site C compared to site D, as there is no need for any alterations to the emergency access or the removal of any trees.

Monmouth Town Council’s planning committee is waiting for a technical report to be produced by Mr Moran so they can make a recommendation at their planning committee on 16th January before the alternative park idea goes before Monmouthshire County Council sometime in February.

Campaigners for the refurbishment of the present site point out that the £85,000 is only available for another two years and will be clawed back by developers with interest if not spent by then.

Mr Moran confirms that in terms of distance from residential properties, the requirement for Local Equipped Areas for Play (LEAP) is that they should be located a minimum distance of 20m from the nearest residential boundary. This has been measured on the new site and the requisite distance can be achieved with site C. MCC’s Landscape Section is also confident that the play equipment can be installed without affecting the existing mature trees located on site.

Spokesperson for the friends group, Rachel Jupp said: “We proposed site D because at the time it seemed like the site with least objections from the sports clubs. We had a meeting with the football and rugby clubs in September and came away with the impression that they found the site an acceptable choice. However, recently when I put our proposal in the public realm through social media, various objections were raised.”

She added that objections raised by Monmouth Town Council’s planning committee “have also had an impact on how we have modified our proposal.”

“Although we gave solutions to all these objections in our proposal, I am happy for us to be wrong if there is a better alternative. Mike Moran has suggested site C (opposite the Welsh Water building) for some time. We believe this would be an excellent location. Obviously, Friends of Chippenham Mead can only make proposals and not take action, but we have given our backing to MCC for exploring the possibility of relocating the playground to site C if that is the more popular and feasible alternative,” she added.