A COUNCIL is being urged to speed up the replacement of outdated playground equipment as a matter of urgency.

The call follows a threat from a Bacup family to sue Rossendale Council for damages following an accident in Moorlands Park, Bacup.

Six-year-old Edward Codd, of Rochdale Road, needed surgery and a skin graft after breaking his arm in the fall from a nine-feet high climbing frame.

His parents are taking legal advice on pursuing a claim for damages and the matter is with the council's legal department.

Now the council's policy committee is to be asked to pump more money into replacing old equipment and making playgrounds safer for children.

Leisure chairman Coun Lawrence Forshaw told the leisure and recreation committee: "We must apply to the council for the money for improvements.

"Every playground is diminishing year by year as we take out equipment which is considered unsafe."

This year the committee had only £7,000 to spend on improvement projects for its 44 playgrounds.

Coun Forshaw added: "If we had the money every playground would have the proper surfacing, but we haven't had the money to do it." Edward's mother, Mrs Sarah Codd, wrote to the council following the accident claiming that playground equipment in Rossendale compares unfavourably with more child-friendly equipment in neighbouring Rochdale and Burnley.

Edward spent eight days in Booth Hall Children's Hospital, Manchester, after the fall last month.

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