Work on the upper play area at Keynsham Memorial Park starts in mid-September and takes up to 12 weeks: a climbing wall, group rope swing, wheelchair carousel and play mounds, funded by S106 money and the town council.

The upper play area at Keynsham Memorial Park will be rebuilt from mid-September, with the work expected to take up to 12 weeks, after Bath & North East Somerset Council and Keynsham Town Council signed off a final design on 12 August.

The council’s announcement lists what is going in: a bespoke climbing wall, which it says is the first of its kind in Bath and North East Somerset and is designed so children can climb sideways as well as up; a large rope swing built for a group rather than one child; a carousel with a wheelchair space; and new play mounds with a tunnel through them. The existing slide, which the council calls “much-loved”, stays, with new surfacing and paths around it. Wicksteed, the specialist play provider named by the council, will carry out the works.

The project page on the council’s website puts the expected cost of the play and landscaping improvements at £250,000, funded from Section 106 developer contributions and by Keynsham Town Council. The smaller play area at the bottom of the park, for younger children, is not being changed.

Four years from survey to spades

The play area is the second and larger phase of an improvement programme that started with a public consultation in spring 2022, when the council asked residents what was wrong with the park and what they wanted fixed. The survey report from that exercise is still online. The first result was the replacement of the footbridge over the River Chew in 2023; the play area was then held until a contractor was appointed and, the council says, timed to avoid disrupting the park’s summer events.

Timeline of the Keynsham Memorial Park improvement project: public consultation spring 2022, footbridge replaced 2023, final play design agreed 12 August 2026, works start mid-September 2026, works complete by mid-December 2026 if the 12-week estimate holds
Key dates in the Keynsham Memorial Park project, from B&NES Council's project page and its announcement of 12 August 2026. The completion date assumes the council's own "up to 12 weeks" estimate.

Councillor Andy Wait, chair of Keynsham Town Council, said the town council was “especially pleased to see some new innovative designs which will excite our children, as well as some of the popular existing play equipment which will remain”. Councillor Sarah Warren, B&NES deputy leader, said the design “has been shaped by local feedback and will create a more inclusive place where children of all ages and abilities can have fun”.

Seven more play areas due this autumn

Keynsham is the largest of a run of play-area jobs across the district. The same announcement says the council has already refurbished the play areas at Loxton Drive, Calton Road, Burnt House Road and Weston Recreation Ground in Bath, resurfaced Sydney Gardens and upgraded Royal Victoria Park, and that seven more sites are due for improvement this autumn:

  • Vandyck Avenue, Keynsham
  • Staddlestones Park, Midsomer Norton
  • Woodborough Road, Radstock
  • Corston View, Bath
  • Pennyquick Park, Bath
  • Lymore Gardens, Bath
  • Moorlands Recreation Ground, Bath

No start dates or budgets have been published for those seven; we will report them when the council does.

What it means for you

If your children use the upper play area. It will be out of use from mid-September and, if the 12-week estimate holds, should reopen around the middle of December. The lower play area for younger children is not part of the works, and nor is the rest of the park. Vandyck Avenue, the other Keynsham play area on the council’s list, is itself due for work this autumn, so check before you go.

If you visit the park for events. The council deliberately scheduled the work after the summer season, so the music festival and other bookings on the park’s events page are unaffected by the timing.

If you pay a Keynsham Town Council precept. Part of this is your money. The council has not published the split between the Section 106 pot and the town council’s contribution; the £250,000 is the total expected cost.

If you are travelling in. Bath Hill East car park is about 100 metres from the park and Keynsham station is an eight-minute walk, according to the council’s venue page. Our Bath roadworks and travel page has the current closures around the district, and things to do in Bath covers the other parks and days out nearby.