A GRANT of £10,000 will pay for arts, crafts and performance activities at South Oxford adventure playground.

The popular playground in Whitehouse Road will receive funding from the Awards for All programme run by the National Lottery.

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price, who represents Hinksey Park and is chairman of the South Oxford Adventure Playground (SOAP) committee, said the funding would become available next year.

He said: “The wish always was to put on a particular set of events next spring and summer which will be geared around craft skills and activities, like woodwork, for people who wouldn’t normally have access to them.

“There will be a range of crafts, and also art and dance, and we plan to do a series of events, hopefully outdoors if the weather is nice, but we have got the hut if it isn’t.”

He said the events were due to culminate in a showcase of talents learned during the scheme, to be held at the end of the summer next year.

He said: “The aim is for it to build up towards a major performance at the end of the summer where the young people will have the opportunity to show what they have learned.”

The playground has been praised by current users, who said they were excited about the new investment.

Rachel Cousins, 58, of Abingdon Road, regularly takes her grandson Joshua Jones, nine, to the playground.

She said: “It’s absolutely fantastic. We’ve lived here for decades and I see the place when it’s not being used and think we should just go and open it up.

“It’s great for the area. There were 50 kids using it last time I went down there and it’s a real mix, including some kids whose parents might not have the money to send them to an after-school club.”

The Awards for All scheme offers grants of between £300 and £10,000 for projects which address the issues, needs and aspirations of local communities.

It funds projects aimed at developing skills, improving health, revitalising the local environment and enabling people to become more active citizens.