Bournemouth play areas: Noyce Gardens shuts 21 August

The play area at Noyce Gardens, the one near Jewell Academy, closes to children on Friday 21 August so that contractors can strip it out and build a new one, and BCP Council expects it back in use by the end of September. The budget is £181,500, and it is the first of four Bournemouth rebuilds with published designs and a published price.

Those four sites share £606,400 between them. That is the Bournemouth share of £1,437,600 allocated across eight play spaces whose concept plans the council has now signed off, the rest of it going to Poole. The figures come from BCP Council’s own Plan for Play concept plans page, which was updated on 5 August, and from the July and August project newsletter written by Cllr Sandra Moore, the council’s portfolio holder for play strategy.

The four Bournemouth sites, and when

For comparison, the four Poole sites are Bourne Valley at £139,800 (already built and awaiting a formal reopening), Hamworthy Park at £187,900, Hatchards Field at £103,500 and a £400,000 rebuild of Baiter Skatepark, which is the only one of the eight that needs planning permission. That application is P/26/02919/FUL on the BCP planning register.

What Noyce Gardens is getting

The replacement is laid out in four zones: toddlers, primary school age, teens, and a sensory area. The published design covers swings, slides, zip wires and climbing equipment, and the skate ramp currently on the site is being removed rather than replaced, with the council describing the rest of the site as receiving “broader repairs and refurbishment”.

Children from the area have made signs for the new play area and painted stones that will be set into the walkway, so their part in it stays on the site permanently. That detail comes from the council’s own August newsletter, which also confirms the 21 August start.

The money, and where it has moved

The Plan for Play strategy was adopted by BCP Cabinet and Full Council on 10 December 2024, with £3.9 million approved for Phase 1, covering 2025 to 2027. The council now says more than £4.6 million is going in, the difference coming from grants and outside contributions won since. It has 171 play spaces to look after, holding 1,175 separate pieces of play equipment, and its own strategy says that stock is “in major decline”.

Two Bournemouth budgets have moved since the council published its response to last summer’s consultation. Noyce Gardens was listed then as receiving £200,000; the concept plan approved this year carries £181,500. Mallard Road was listed as allocated £120,000, following community feedback and money from BCP Homes; the concept plan carries £104,000. The council has not published an explanation for either change, and we have not seen one in the committee record.

The consultation those allocations came out of ran for four weeks and closed on 24 August 2025. It drew 604 completed surveys, 241 children voting in person on their favourite play activities, 47 drawings and one 3D model.

The play areas that are going

Refurbishment is only half of the plan. Eleven play spaces across the council area are to be repurposed, which in the council’s own definition means the equipment is removed and another use found for the land. Those named are Cornish Gardens, Cunningham Crescent, Deacon Road, Riggs Gardens, Springwater Road, Gunville Crescent, Rownhams Road, Stratton Road, Swansbury Drive, Boscombe Edwardian Gardens and Campbell Road.

BCP groups its play spaces by numbered zone rather than by town, so the list does not read as a Bournemouth or Poole split. Its A to Z index puts Gunville Crescent, Rownhams Road, Stratton Road and Swansbury Drive in Zone 7, the same zone as Noyce Gardens and Muscliff Park, and Campbell Road in Zone 10.

The council’s commitment is that larger refurbishment work will take place at play spaces “within close walking distance” of each site being repurposed and that, where possible, removal will not happen until those refurbishments are finished. Separately, BMX equipment at Millfield, skate provision at Sherborn Crescent and timber ramps at Poole Lane are also being removed, though those sites keep their other equipment and get repairs.

Two Kinson decisions were reversed after residents objected. Keeble Road will have its existing equipment repaired until it reaches the end of its life instead of closing, and Mandale Road stays open while the council looks for money for a full replacement later.

Elsewhere in Bournemouth

Winton Rec is further back in the queue: the council’s indicative delivery schedule dated August 2026 has it at the design brief stage, before contract award. Pelhams Park has £75,000 in Phase 1 with more work promised in Phase 2. Central Gardens, Charter Road, King’s Park (Clarence Road) and Poole Lane are listed as coming soon, with no dates yet.

Smaller repairs have already landed at several Bournemouth sites this summer: new skate play equipment at Moordown Rec, surfacing repairs at Kingston Road, new timber play equipment at Fisherman’s Walk in Southbourne, and improvements at Beaufort Park and Fenners Field.

One new play area is still undecided. A consultation on building one at Landford Way closed on Sunday 5 July and the council says it is evaluating the responses. No outcome has been published.

What it means for you

If Noyce Gardens is your local park, plan around it from Friday. The site is being fully replaced rather than patched, so it will be fenced off for around six weeks rather than a few days. Bear in mind that the other two Bournemouth sites with dates, Mallard Road and eventually Muscliff Park, are due their own closures this autumn, so they will not all be open at once. Mallard Road goes first, on 10 September.

If your play area is on the repurpose list, the equipment is going and the council’s position is that a better site nearby should be finished first. It is worth checking that sequencing locally rather than assuming it, because the commitment is qualified with “where possible”.

Anyone who wants the council’s updates directly can email greenspaces@bcpcouncil.gov.uk to be added to the Plan for Play newsletter list, which is where start dates appear first.

For what else is open in the meantime, see our guide to things to do in Bournemouth, and for the Baiter Skatepark application and other live cases, our Bournemouth planning news page.