Bournemouth Play Areas: Five Rebuilds and When They Reopen

Two more Bournemouth play areas have been added to BCP Council’s rebuilding programme. Setley Gardens, behind Castlepoint, gets what the council calls a full refurbishment, and Chesildene Avenue gets repairs, both announced on Thursday 17 September after a consultation in June.

Neither announcement carries a figure or a date. What the council has published dates for is the rest of the autumn, and by the second week of October five Bournemouth play areas will have contractors on them at the same time.

The five Bournemouth sites, and when the council says they finish

These are the dates and budgets on BCP Council’s own Plan for Play concept plans page, which it last updated on 14 September.

That is £666,400 committed to five Bournemouth sites. Three of them are due back in the middle of October, about a fortnight before half term, which runs from 26 to 30 October. Muscliff Park is due back at the end of October and Churchill Gardens in mid-November.

Two more are running in Poole over the same period: Hatchards Field on Rossmore Road went on site on 14 September with £103,500 and a completion date of 23 October, and Hamworthy Park starts on 5 October with £187,900 and a completion date of early December.

Noyce Gardens has already slipped, and two council pages disagree

When we first wrote up the programme on 17 August, the council’s concept plans page said Noyce Gardens would go on site on 21 August and be finished by the end of September. The same page now says it went on site on 9 September with an anticipated completion of mid-October: nineteen days late to start, and about a fortnight later to finish.

There is a second problem with the Noyce date. The council’s news release of 14 September says the work “is expected to take around six to eight weeks”. From a 9 September start, six weeks ends on 21 October and eight weeks ends on 4 November. Neither is mid-October. The two pages were published on the same day.

The council has not explained either change. If Noyce Gardens is your local playground, the mid-October date would get it open in time for half term and the six to eight weeks would not. On the record so far, plan for the later one.

Setley Gardens and Chesildene Avenue

Setley Gardens is the bigger of the two announcements. The council says it will get “a full refurbishment that puts the play area back at the heart of the local community”, with the investment “focussed at Setley”.

Chesildene Avenue is the more interesting one. The council’s release says the site “had previously been proposed for repurposing”, which in the council’s own language means taking the equipment out, and that it will now get repairs after “strong local engagement”.

That is not quite the whole sequence. BCP’s Plan for Play page records that the 2025 consultation had already changed Chesildene Avenue’s fate: the “you said, we did” summary from that round says defect repairs would be carried out at Chesildene Avenue, Epiphany School and Knowlton Gardens “until they reach end of life”. The difference now is that the council describes the work as repairs “designed to enhance the existing play offering” rather than keeping a tired site going.

Neither site has a published budget, a design or a date. Both were decided by a consultation held in June 2026, whose results the council has not published in full.

The wider programme is £4.6 million across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, covering around 100 play areas including nearly 20 major refurbishments, paid for from the Community Infrastructure Levy, the charge on new development. Cllr Andy Hadley, the portfolio holder for parks, said the council was investing “to create better, safer and more exciting places for children to play”.

What it means for you

• Three Bournemouth play areas have contractors on them right now: Kings Park at Ashley Road, Noyce Gardens and Mallard Road. Muscliff Park joins them on 29 September and Churchill Gardens in early October.
• Do not plan half term around a reopening. The council publishes “mid” and “end” of month targets, not dates, and the one site we have tracked from the start has already moved twice.
• The five sites above are the ones with published designs and dates. The council says dozens of other play areas are getting smaller repairs and new equipment, without naming dates for them. What else is open in the meantime is on our things to do in Bournemouth page.
• If your play area is still listed for repurposing, the Chesildene Avenue decision shows the list is not fixed. The council says the June consultation “directly shaped how the funding is targeted”.
• The council posts progress on the Plan for Play news page, which is a different website from the council’s own news hub and is usually the first to carry a start date.

Sources

• BCP Council, new play improvements announced after communities have their say, 17 September 2026 for the Setley Gardens and Chesildene Avenue announcements, the June 2026 consultation, the £4.6 million programme, the 100 sites and nearly 20 major refurbishments, and the Moore and Hadley quotes.
• BCP Council, Plan for Play concept plans, updated 14 September 2026, for every budget, start date and anticipated completion in the table, and for the Hatchards Field and Hamworthy Park dates.
• BCP Council, zip-zip hooray! Noyce Gardens play upgrades get underway, 14 September 2026 for the “six to eight weeks” estimate, the more than £180,000 figure and the design detail.
• BCP Council, Plan for Play, last updated 16 September 2026, for the 2025 consultation outcome on Chesildene Avenue, Epiphany School and Knowlton Gardens, the 604 survey responses and the current status of each site.
• Our own 17 August 2026 report for the 21 August start and end of September completion the council’s concept plans page carried at that time.

If you spot a play area reopening before we do, tell us at hello@bournemouthpost.co.uk.