MORE than £30,000 will be spent on refurbishing a Teesdale playground.

However, Barnard Castle town councillors have warned that they will not invest any more money if the refurbished Green Lane play area is vandalised.

SureStart has agreed to allocate £30,000 towards the cost of a replacement play area in Green Lane and has asked the town council for a contribution of up to £3,000.

Although the town council has not budgeted for this and it would have to be taken from the council's reserves, it has made similar contributions to improve Flatts Woods and refurbish the war memorials.

A grant application to the National Playing Fields' Association has been unsuccessful.

However, the town council is trying to find out details from Teesdale District Council about other grants available for play areas from housing developers in the town.

Councillor Eric Fell said this was an opportunity for a project to take place in the town where the majority of funding was coming from an outside source.

He said: "This is probably one of the biggest play areas in terms of area in the town.

"I'm not overly keen on throwing good money after bad in terms of putting in new equipment and it get vandalised.

"However, if it takes this to pump-prime then it's a good idea.

"If there's any vandalism then it might affect our decisions in future, but we can't afford to turn down this offer from SureStart."

The council agreed to donate £3,000.