Games area on Preston estate set for upgrade

Tuesday, 16 December 2025 07:33

By Paul Faulkner

A games area on an estate in Preston, which has become so damaged that parts of it are being used as “missiles” by the young people it was designed to benefit, is to be refurbished.

The facility, on the corner of Burholme Road and Woodacre Road in Ribbleton, will get a £100,000 upgrade after Preston City Council bought it from Lancashire County Council for just £1.

A meeting of the city authority heard that the site – in the shadow of the Moor Nook Youth Community Centre – had become a target for antisocial behaviour so severe, those living nearby had been left terrified.

“[It has been] in a terrible state for a long time [and] has been absolutely attacked by gangs,” Ribbleton ward councillor Jonathan Saksena said.

“Some of the residents are getting really afraid of what’s happening around it.”

He was speaking after the city council’s cabinet agreed to acquire the one-time attraction – known as a multi-use games area (MUGA) – which members were told had been maintained by the county council to “a safe standard”, but had now reached “the end of its lifespan”.

At a meeting of Preston’s full council, cabinet member for the environment and community safety, Freddie Bailey, said: “A lot of the young people…[have been] destroying it little by little – and they’re using a lot of the broken bricks as missiles.”

He said that the county council “didn’t really want anything to do with it” and had suggested as much as £500,000 would have been required for renovation – which was when the city authority decided to “step in”. Ribbleton was described in a city council cabinet report as being an area with “very few facilities for teens“.

Cllr Bailey said he hoped work could begin “very quickly”. A contractor has already been appointed for the job, with £76,000 set to be invested in the games facilities themselves and another £24,000 for the installation of four new lighting columns, with the cash coming from a pot earmarked for improvements to parks and play spaces.