A WEARSIDE park has been given £75,000 towards improving its landscape and providing facilities for teenagers.

The Blackie site, in Upper Ford, Sunderland, has won the grant from the third round Single Regeneration Budget, after a need for a more teenager-friendly area was identified.

It will allow the existing basic games area to be re-marked to feature a basketball court and five-a-side soccer pitch, and two teen shelters to be built to provide a meeting place.

Rachel Kitson, Neighbourhood Resource Centre manager in Upper Ford, put the bid together with members of the Havelock Area Residents and Tenants group.

She said: "This will develop an already established area and expand it to include teen activities.

"Often, parks are built for toddlers, and there is a danger that teenagers get forgotten in the provision of leisure activities.

"This will give the teenagers of the area a place to mix and call their own."