DETAILS on the new destination play park at Lochore Meadows were viewed by more than a quarter of a million people on social media and it's possible it could be ready to open at Easter.

A consultation is underway about an all-inclusive facility at the country park and with £500,000 already in the pot from Fife Council and more funding to come, the aim is to start work before the end of the year.

The proposals include play equipment for all ages and abilities and if social media interest is any sort of guide, it will prove a huge success.

Park manager Ian Laing told the Times: "The two Facebook posts with details about the destination play park reached something like 270,000 people, which is just phenomenal, and it's getting a lot of support locally.

"The consultation has to be completed and final designs agreed, but we're planning for spades in the ground in December with a very optimistic completion date of March or April next year.

"That's dependent on the weather, if we have a bad winter that could really hold it up."

The Friends of Lochore Meadows also had an "excellent response" from three open sessions they held last month at the Meedies.

The feedback, views and suggestions will all be taken into account and help shape the final plans.

Ian continued: "The consultation is ongoing and there are a few themes emerging, such as making sure it has a fence round it and quite a lot of people are interested in a splash park area too, so that's all been noted and passed on.

"The plans include swings with special seats for disabled children, chutes where two can go down together at the same time, the accessible roundabout is already there, a sensory tunnel that the Drive Deck equipment can go on and a horizontal bed of small rollers so kids can reach up and pull themselves along with their arms.

"There's also a special piece of equipment being made by the NHS that will allow kids, no matter their ability, to go down to the loch side and help them feed the ducks and the swans.

"A long standing criticism was that there was very little for kids aged three to five so that's being looked at too.

"There are lots of things to make it accessible to all, integrated with the standard play equipment so children of all abilities can play together."

The amount of money raised will determine what they can do with the hope that more money will lead to a bigger and better facility.

Ian said: "The initial budget is £500,000 but there's match-funding in progress.

"We've got Play As One Scotland, who did the play park in Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline, helping us out and a charity doing some consultations for us, while NHS Fife have been extremely supportive.

"Their head of physiotherapy, Sarah Negrette, and her team have been searching for funding so it's a real collaborative effort."

There's a need to improve the play park at the Meedies, which is already hugely popular but is starting to suffer wear and tear.

The park manager explained: "The existing playpark is knackered, we've had to close down different features for the best part of a year for safety reasons.

"The metal slide has been welded, you don't want to do that too many times, and the red volcano slide has been resurfaced and material put over the holes to hopefully last until the end of the season.

"Different things are beginning to break down and with the supply issues it's making it hard to get replacement parts.

"So we've got this money and if you're going to replace it we wanted to make it as inclusive as possible.

"All the different agencies involved in building such play parks want to build them near a cafe, next to all-inclusive toilets and car parking so we already have all of that.

"So as a destination play park, people will come from all over. It's already attracting the attention of lots of kids."