CHILDREN in a small Cotswold village are looking forward to their first ever play area thanks to a windfall of nearly £50,000.

After eight years of fierce fundraising, delighted children and adults in Bibury are celebrating that they have enough money in the pot to build the village’s first ever play area.

A seven-strong committee called Bibury Play secured lottery funding of £47,905.11 through the Lottery's Changing Spaces programme.

Other grants, including £3,110 from the Gloucestershire Community Foundation and £5,000 from the Waites Foundation, as well as more than £20,000 collected through local fundraising, helped Bibury Play achieve their target.

The cash means long-held dreams of a space dedicated to the village’s youngsters can now become a reality.

Play equipment will include a nest swing, activity tower, gravity bowl and balancing beams.

Committee member and parish councillor Ann Haigh said: "We are thrilled, it is so exciting to know that eight years of hard effort will pay off.

"This is something the village children have longed for and that they deserve.

"Bibury is a small village with plenty for the adults but nothing for the children.

"We are really trying to be a child-friendly village to encourage more young families to settle down here and this will go a long way to help."

Bibury Play, comprising parish councillors and parents, has worked on creating a new play area for the village for more than eight years after school children approached the parish council about the issue.

After five potential sites fell through, a landowner was found who was happy to lease part of a field at a peppercorn rent.

The site is adjacent to the cricket club track, at the Arlington end of the village.

It is expected that work on the play area will begin in September and be completed in October.