USK will get a new children’s play area next to the Memorial Hall after a community group was able to raise the £120,000 required for the works.
The chair of Usk Park Project, Naomi Horsley described the feeling of having their work come to fruition.
“It was really just amazing, because after three years of effort, to suddenly realise that this was going to happen was just amazing.”
A big part of the group’s fundraising was made up from a £100,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund which they received in December.
However a lot of the remaining total was sourced locally, which along with all the input the community has meant it is a really community project.
Mrs Horsley said: “Over the last month we have had some incredibly generous donations from local business and individuals.
“It’s totally a community project, it’s a community park for the community, built by the community and we really hope they are going to embrace it.”
In the past three years the group has extensively consulted though surveys, meetings and stalls at school fetes to design a play park that children and their parents are happy with.
Mrs Horsley added: “Key for us was accessible play equipment so we have a wheelchair access roundabout, we have a trampoline which is incredibly popular with the children. ?“We have got two types of multi-unit play equipment, those have each got rope climbing equipment, mini climbing walls and slides.
“We have got a series of balance blocks and stepping stones. We have got a play house, traditional swings including one for children who can’t support themselves and a team swing. There is about 10 pieces of equipment going in.
“What we wanted to is achieve a wider age spread, this park currently caters for five to 10-year-olds, and we wanted to bring the age down to two and up to 11 or 12.”
The Usk Park Project worked with Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) throughout the process to ensure the new park would be ready to go and the council assisted in applying for the lottery funding.
Mrs Horsley said: “That was very much working with MCC to achieve that (lottery funding). They own the land, they are going to kindly maintain it and insure it and it wouldn’t happen without that collaboration.”
Councillor Phil Hobson, MCC’s cabinet member for Community Development said: “We always said we’d support community groups when they come forward with an idea and in this particular case everybody is on board.
“You can’t invest enough money in play because it is good for development, wellbeing, obesity and they’re running about getting fresh air.”
The new park is set to be a great benefit to the town with people already exited for its arrival.
Councillor for Usk, Brian Strong said: “I have a three-year-old grandson, he was down here the other day and when it’s all installed we will be spending a lot of time in this park. It’s going to be a great facility for the town and i think it will be an attraction for people coming into the town.”