New play equipment recently added to the playing fields on Church Road is hoped to be "the first of many" additions to the park, a local councillor has said.

The equipment was installed following work by town councillors Charlie Smith and Kevin Jackson, who managed to secure £15,000 of funding from Staffordshire Moorlands District Council to transform the park.

The money could be used to bring more equipment to the park in the near future, with a zipline expected soon, and additions such as exercises machines being looked into.

Cllr Smith told Biddulph Nub News that she wanted to improve the park after some of its old equipment was removed due to vandalism.

She said: "One of my election pledges last year was to try and improve the park, because it had been vandalised and a lot of the equipment was removed, with nothing put in its place.

"I thought that was a travesty, so I spoke to Cllr Kevin Jackson, and we approached the district council to ask if there was any money for new equipment.

"Initially they said no, but they later found that they had £15,000 left over and they would try and find something within that budget.

"We got feedback from people who use the park on what sort of thing they would like to see there, and used that to decide what kind of equipment should be added."

She continued: "A good bit of the work has now been finished, and I have already seen quite a lot of children playing on it and enjoying it, so I hope it will be the first of many things for the park.

"It still needs quite a bit of work, and we've had discussions about putting things like exercise machines in as well - we want to make it a space that can be utilised by all, and somewhere that all local people can use and enjoy for free."