A COMMUNITY that defied a council and raised funds for its own children's playground celebrated the start of work this week.

Stanhope residents have raised £150,000 to convert vacant land near Ashcroft into a recreation park with facilities for youngsters of all ages.

About £26,000 of this was collected through community efforts such as coffee mornings and stalls, with the rest coming from local authorities and other organisations, including £60,000 from a Living Spaces fund.

A large portion of the funding is being spent on levelling part of the sloping 1,000sq-metre site for an all-weather games area.

Play equipment for pre-school and older children will take up the rest of the park, which has been designed by groups of young people at workshops with Groundwork West Durham.

The Ashcroft Playground Appeal was formed two years ago after parents failed to persuade Wear Valley District Council to replace out-of-date equipment.

The council said at the time it could only afford to maintain one playground in Stanhope, next to the river, but this would mean Ashcroft children crossing a busy main road.

Appeal treasurer Denise Wood said: "We have proved the council wrong. We wouldn't accept that we didn't need this play area because the other one is over the road and is too isolated a place for younger children.

"There are more children coming on to the estate all the time and 130 houses which will directly benefit. Everybody has worked very hard to get this far and do such a tremendous job in a very short time."

The games area should be ready in three months' time with the play equipment in place by summer.

Project manager Oliver Graham, Wear Valley project officer for Groundwork, said: "The group has done well to raise so much money on their own.

"It is an example of how a community can help themselves and work in partnership to achieve their aims."

The eventual cost of the playground could reach £180,000. Contributors include Wear Valley District Council, Durham County Council, Barclays Bank, Byzac, County Durham Foundation, Northumbrian Water, Lafarge, the Grey Bull, Stanhope Market Towns Initiative, Stanhope Parish Council and the Weardale Society.