Four play areas across East Devon - including a site in Brixington, Exmouth - are to be refurbished over the next few weeks as the district council spends a total of £325,000 on improving them.

Although play parks cannot be currently used due to the government's Covid-19 restrictions, the council is taking the opportunity to replace some of the equipment so that the areas will be ready for children and young people to play when the time is right.

Work starts on Monday (8 June) on improvements at Seafield Gardens (Seaton), Meadway (Seaton) Cherry Close (Honiton) and Brixington (Exmouth).

The newly designed play areas will provide a range of fun activities requested by children and young people in these area with new trampolines, group swings, zip wires and themed play areas.

Cllr Geoff Jung, the district council's portfolio holder for Coast, Countryside and Environment, welcomed the improvements.

He said: "Although our play parks have to remain closed to prevent contamination, I'm very pleased to see we are going ahead with the agreed refurbishment of the parks so that these great new facilities will all ready and waiting for our children and young people to enjoy once the restrictions are lifted."

Each play area will have a unique theme reflecting the heritage of the town in which it's located, including a dinosaur theme at Seafield Gardens to reflect the town's links to the Jurassic Coast, and a lifeboat theme at Brixington in line with Exmouth's maritime heritage

East Devon consulted with children and young people in Seaton, Honiton and Exmouth to find out what activities they would like to see at each site, and the views of the youngsters was provided to a number of play equipment suppliers who competed to provide the best designs.

A strong and varied selection of quality designs were received and following evaluation, Proludic Ltd has been awarded the contract. Proludic has provided a comprehensive risk assessment for the works and the council will regularly monitor the refurbishments and is confident that they can take place safely.

Works will begin at Seafield Gardens and Brixington play areas from Monday and the installations across all four sites are expected to be completed within 12 weeks.