We Hear You: working with Credenhill community to bring their playground back to life

When the playground on Oak Road shut, families in the village near Hereford told us how worried they were about the impact this would have on local children. They raised their concerns with us, and we listened.

After receiving a complaint from the community about the playground being shut we investigated and worked with our teams and budgets to make sure we could fund a brand new playground that meets the needs of the people who use it every day. 

Listening to our customers and those who will use the playground is important, so we spoke to them and listened to their feedback as they told us what mattered most.

The equipment being installed includes swings, monkey bars, a small double slide, seesaw, a metal goal with a basketball net, and two benches.

Our customer Sarah Lewis who lives in Credenhill and was involved in the consultation said having the new playground will mean so much to the community.

She said: “The children are so pleased to have the playground back. We’re so grateful to Citizen for listening to us – everyone is so appreciative of the result.

“The playground is the heart of the estate – the children were still hanging out there even when it was shut. To see the children without it, it fuelled me to write to Citizen and find out what was going on as I was quite frustrated and sad when it was closed.”

Sarah added that the children really appreciated being involved in the community event.

She said: “There was a community event held by Citizen and it went well, they listened to the children and made them feel heard. They were given the chance to have their say on the apparatus that would be installed and give some ideas on the floor colour. That really cheered them up. It was really nice to see Citizen doing something like this and to value the children’s opinions.

“The children wanted monkey bars – that was a big thing. They were also realistic and were grateful to have the chance to have their say.

As part of work on the playground, we also installed two speed bumps in the road and speed signs to slow traffic along the road.

Our Director of Building Safety Will Walker said: “We’re pleased to hear the brilliant feedback from the community that this playground is what’s needed in the area and that we’ve listened to them.

“We had no option to close the playground in March last year as the equipment was dangerous for children to use. We know this was really disappointing for our customers and that’s why we committed to working with them to install a playground that suits their needs and is what they want.

“Listening to customers and acting on what they tell us is at the heart of our commitment to help customers shape our services.

This is part of our ongoing We Hear You commitment to improve services by listening to customer feedback and acting on what matters most.