THE NEW £350,000 Dawlish play park has welcomed its first youngsters who have given it the thumbs up.

The Manor Gardens park, which has been due for an upgrade for many years, is now open to the public.

The official opening is due to take place next month.

But the reaction from the first children and young people to use the ‘Gold Standard’ play park, widely expected to become the best in Devon, has been widely applauded.

Saturday was said to have been ‘really busy’ with youngsters trying out the variety of brand new equipment.

Natasha Cleave said: ‘Absolutely love our new park.

‘Best thing to happen to Dawlish in many years.

‘A huge thank you to everyone involved and especially to Cllr Linda Petherick who deserves the recognition for all her hard work and planning.

‘This wouldn’t have happened without her.

‘Thank you Linda, you’re such a credit to our town, we are so lucky to have you.’

Jointly funded by Dawlish Town Council and Teignbridge District Council, the park has been several years in the making and was designed to be inclusive and accessible.

Joanne Osborn said: ‘My son and my husband have been there and my son thinks it’s amazing, he didn’t want to leave.

‘It’s brilliant and children now have a fun place to go.’

Town and district councillor Gary Taylor said his six-year-old granddaughter loves it.

He said: ‘She was a regular at the old play park but now she loves what has been provided, especially the more adventurous equipment.

‘She is very tall for her age and got to have a whizz around the three-seater swing with two obliging teenagers.

‘It is fantastic to see so many young people enjoying themselves.’

Other responses said it was good to see the park so busy, it looked ‘amazing’ and was ‘absolutely full of children having a whale of a time’.

Built by a Newton Abbot-based contractor in a few months, a local rope company has provided all the rope used for the park.

The play park itself features coastal themed equipment including a train, a boat and the famous Black Swans.

Totem poles are in position through the Lawn leading to the Knowle and the play park itself.

The equipment on the Lawn includes a wooden climbing spider, a pole for measuring height which uses the equivalent heights for animals such as rhinos, lions and chimpanzees, a beehive and a pole of animal sounds.

The design for the park was drawn up following extensive consultation with local groups and Oakwood College in Dawlish, a specialist college for students with learning difficulties and disabilities, which provided input to make the park accessible.

It is wheelchair-friendly and includes features for the visually-impaired.