A new play area has opened at Betteshanger Country Park just in time for the last week of the summer holidays.

The park, which includes modern equipment such as a rota bounce (a fast-paced unit that encourages coordination with a rocking and bouncing motion) and a themed dragon swing, as well as more traditional pieces such as a seesaw, has been moved to its new location in advance of work starting on the park’s visitor centre, which is due to open in summer 2016.

General manager Lorraine Cheesmur said: “The play area, for children aged three to 12, is an important and popular part of what Betteshanger Country Park offers, especially to those families with small children.”

Permission to re-site and upgrade the children’s play space was granted in September last year and work started at the end of June 2015.

“The play area is an important and popular part of what Betteshanger Country Park offers" - Lorraine Cheesemur general manager

Mrs Cheesmur said: “We’d like to thank all our visitors for their patience as we had hoped to have the play area open for the beginning of the summer holidays. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, it was delayed a few weeks but in the long term we hope everyone will agree the wait was worthwhile.

The new £7.5 million visitor centre will include a restaurant and cafe, a conference area, cycle hire and a biomass energy centre, which is due to power the park.

Betteshanger Country Park, formerly known as Fowlmead Country Park, is operated as part of the Betteshanger Sustainable Parks project, being led by Hadlow College, and is integral to the regeneration of the former mining community in East Kent.