Lifton Parish Council has issued its thanks to Ambrosia Creamery (of Premier Foods) for donating £2,000 from the Ambrosias Creamery Community Fund which has been spent on upgrades for the play area at Lifton Recreation Park.

The four-figure donation has been used to remove rubber chippings amongst the play equipment and lay new turf, allowing park users, particularly children, to enjoy the facilities at the village’s well-frequented recreation ground on Leat Road.

Chris Edmonds, chair of the parish council, its recreation ground committee and Tamarside ward borough councillor, said: ‘We have worked with the Ambrosia factory closely over the years.

‘The committee approached them regarding new turf and they were very supportive — as they always are with projects which are intended to help the community.

‘They recognise that we are all a part of it. We really wanted to get rid of the chippings and upgrade the surface here to improve accessibility and meet modern safety standards.

‘The chippings weren’t the greatest for those using the recreation ground as they were easily displaced and not very easy to maintain. If they ever got wet they could discolour and may have run onto shoes.’

Tim Styles and Rich Yates of Premier Foods recently met with Cllr Edmonds and Amanda Cox of the committee to see the end result (pictured above).

The Ambrosia Creamery is situated in Tinhay and has been producing there for over 100 years.

Cllr Edmonds stressed that this had been a group effort, with every member of the committee working hard to secure the recreation ground’s upgrades.

These improvements are part of wider, recent upgrade works for all of the equipment and facilities in the park, which the parish council has been overseeing, with only one remaining piece of equipment at the site lined-up to be improved remaining.

Kerry Hunt, a resident of Lifton said: ‘I go to the recreation ground every weekend and some week nights too on my walking route with our dog. My daughter takes her young son there all the time so he can play in the park — he loves the swings and the roundabout.

‘It’s a beautiful setting down by the river. The recent hot weather has brought even more people out too, every weekend there are so many people down there. It’s clean, it’s tidy and it offers something for everyone.’

Cllr Edmonds added: ‘The recreation ground is very popular — it brings people from other neighbouring communities such as Launceston over the border to use it too.

‘We’re really glad to have utilised this opportunity to work with Ambrosia. We hope we can work together with them again on projects which concern community support in the future.’