Paxton Playpark

Hutton and Paxton Community Council are delighted to announce …

….. the long-awaited arrival of the new play park in Paxton! 

We first approached Scottish Borders Council (SBC) in 2021 to ask if the park could be upgraded but we were assured it was beyond ‘upgrading’ and would be replaced.  The play park in Hutton is relatively new in comparison to the one in Paxton so Paxton play park was prioritised by SBC.  

The Scottish Government has provided £35 million since 2021 to fund children’s play parks to help in the recovery process from Covid when so many children were unable to mix with each other.  Our new park in Paxton cost £60,000 and we think most would agree it has been money well-spent.

Once we had confirmation from SBC that our application had been approved, we undertook a survey of park users and their parents in 2024 to ensure the children and young people had their say in how their new park should look.  Although some ideas were well beyond our scope, in fact, we think Disney World might have struggled, the items most frequently requested were prioritised.  We then worked with SBC to formulate a layout and this was posted on the gate to the park, our website and on the usual noticeboards. 

Work started on March 10th 2025.  Access to the park is difficult so there were challenges unloading the equipment but thanks to Bob and Diane’s generous offer to allow all the equipment to be stored in their garden, work got underway with only a day’s delay.

The team from Kompan did a great job and had all the equipment in place within 3 weeks.    Although we had planned a grand opening, the children were keen to play and the weather was unusually fine so the park was unofficially christened.  When asked their opinion about the park, the overwhelming response was ‘Brilliant!”

Some parents have said they scarcely see their offspring because the park is the place to be.  The great weather has helped of course in getting kids outside, but the downside is that the carefully laid turf around the play areas has suffered from the lack of rain since the park was installed.  We’ll see how it looks once we’ve had some rain.

Note: we can’t publish pictures of children, hence the empty park.

At one point we had 28 children playing in the park and families having lunch at The Cross Inn made good use of the park between courses!

We had a couple of requests from parents to add some picnic tables and benches so we approached SBC to ask if we could use Community Council funds to install two picnic tables in Paxton and one in Hutton play park.  SBC agreed and Pearsons of Duns kindly waived their delivery and assembly charges to deliver the picnic tables.  Once again the challenge of access to Paxton park arose but thanks to Billy and Daryn (who were working nearby), the tables were safely hoisted into position.  Picnic lunches are taking place and again the children have given their vote of approval.

Some of the older children had specifically asked for goal posts when they completed the survey but we did not have sufficient funds to include these in the plan.  We asked the installers to keep the lower half of the park clear of equipment so that we can install goal posts at a later date when we have secured the funds.  We have submitted a further grant application and will focus on ensuring we get the goal posts in position as soon as we can raise the funds.

The access to the park is a bit of a guddle so BT have agreed to remove the redundant phone kiosk and we are liaising with SBC to have the pavement at the entrance levelled and a barrier fence installed to prevent anyone dashing onto the road as they leave the park.