Colchester playparks: work on 34 starts in September

Colchester City Council has published the list of play areas it intends to work on from next month, and it is far longer than the usual one-park announcement: 34 play areas, spread across 13 wards, with the work starting in September 2026 and delivered in phases. (Colchester City Council, Playparks refurbishment)

The list matters because it is specific about what each park actually gets, and the difference is large. Fourteen play areas are down for a full refurbishment. Eleven get a kit replacement, meaning new equipment rather than a rebuilt site. Seven get resurfacing only, which is the safety surface under the equipment rather than anything you play on. One park, the Magnolia Fields youth shelter in Greenstead, is listed only for replacement seating. And one entry is not a refurbishment at all: Queensland Drive in Berechurch is listed as a new playpark.

The full list, by ward

St Anne’s and St John’s has the most entries of any ward, with five: St Annes and St Brides (both resurfacing), and Ripple Way, Chalfont Road and St Cyrus (all full refurbishment).

Highwoods has four: Gavin Way, known locally as Pencil Park (resurfacing), Northfield Gardens and Sioux Close (full refurbishment) and Elizabeth Close (kit replacement).

Greenstead has four: Greenstead Slopes (resurfacing), Buffet Way and Hickory Avenue (kit replacement) and the Magnolia Fields youth shelter (seating).

New Town and Christ Church has four: Flagstaff Road and Parade Square (resurfacing), Hatcher Crescent (full refurbishment) and Captains Garden (kit replacement).

Mile End has three: Fan Avenue (full refurbishment), Mill Road and a climbing wall the council lists only as “HWCP”, which is Highwoods Country Park (both kit replacement).

Lexden and Braiswick has three: Shelley Road and King George V Playing Fields (full refurbishment) and Lorkin Way (kit replacement).

Berechurch has two: Finchingfield Field (resurfacing) and the new playpark at Queensland Drive. Shrub End has two: Boadicea Way (full refurbishment) and Richmond Road (kit replacement). Prettygate has two: Baden Powell (full refurbishment) and Westlands Country Park (kit replacement). Stanway has two: Wheatfield Road (full refurbishment) and Woden Avenue (kit replacement).

Three wards have a single entry each: Castle (Kings Meadow, full refurbishment), Marks Tey and Layer (Ley Field, full refurbishment) and Wivenhoe (Lower Lodge, kit replacement).

What the council has not said

Two things are missing from the page, and both are the things residents would most want to know.

There is no total cost and no per-park budget. The council says it is “investing in the refurbishment of play parks across Colchester” but attaches no figure to that, either for the programme or for any individual site. Without it there is no way to tell whether a “full refurbishment” at Kings Meadow means the same spend as one at Ley Field.

There is also no phase order and no completion dates. The page says works are “scheduled to begin in September 2026 and will be delivered in phases across the programme”, but does not say which parks are in which phase. A park on this list could be finished by Christmas or untouched until well into 2027, and the published information does not distinguish between the two.

One number on the page also does not quite line up with the table beneath it. The council says earlier consultation “helped shape the plans for 12 parks receiving the most significant improvements”, while the table lists 14 play areas as full refurbishments. The page does not reconcile the two figures or name which 12 parks were consulted on.

When you can see the designs

The council says detailed designs for these play areas will be available to view in late summer 2026, which is the window residents are in now, and that this will give people “the opportunity to see what’s planned for their local park”. No publication date, venue or web address for those designs is given on the page, so the practical advice is to watch the council’s playparks page and its news feed over the next few weeks.

What it means for you

If your local park is on the list, check which of the three tiers it is in before you get your hopes up. Resurfacing means the ground under the equipment is being replaced and the equipment itself stays as it is. Kit replacement means new equipment on an existing site. Only full refurbishment means the play area is genuinely being rebuilt.

Expect closures. A resurfacing job or an equipment swap means the play area is fenced off while the work happens, and with 34 sites being done in phases from September, a good number of Colchester’s parks will be shut at some point over the autumn and winter. If you rely on a particular park, it is worth having a second one in mind.

If your park is not on the list, this phase is not the whole of the council’s estate. The page describes the 34 as “this phase of improvements”, which implies others follow, but the council has not published what comes next or when.

And note who owns what. The list above is Colchester City Council’s own play areas. In Wivenhoe, only Lower Lodge appears on it, because the town’s two other playparks, at King George V playing field on the High Street and at Dean Park off Mede Way, belong to Wivenhoe Town Council, not the city council. Wivenhoe’s Mede Way playpark has just been rebuilt on £81,000 of grant money raised entirely outside the council’s own budget. The same split applies in other parished parts of the district, so if a play area near you is missing from the city council’s list, the parish or town council may be the body responsible for it.

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