Liz Coates A Great Yarmouth woman's own experience of what mums want is helping to shape her vision of a new indoor play area for tumbling tots.Lindsey Layfield aims to turn a warehouse in Fenner Road next to the Power Station into a family entertainment play centre whichwill offer fun for all ages over four levels.
Liz Coates
A Great Yarmouth woman's own experience of what mums want is helping to shape her vision of a new indoor play area for tumbling tots.
Lindsey Layfield aims to turn a warehouse in Fenner Road next to the Power Station into a family entertainment play centre which
will offer fun for all ages over four levels.
Mrs Layfield of Barnard Avenue, said that having Kayleigh, now three-anda half, had given her an insight into what was on offer locally and how it could be improved.
The 30-year-old teacher, who taught at Greenacre, said she also wanted to include stay-and-play messy sessions for mums trying to acclimatise their offspring to nursery, and “inclusion” slots for people like her husband Darren, 33, who was paralysed from the waist down in a motorbike accident four years ago and would welcome the opportunity to join in the fun with Kayleigh.
And although the scheme had yet to clear planning hurdles, Mrs Layfield said she had already had positive feedback in terms of regeneration benefits.
Under the scheme, 5,000sq feet of what was office space will be filled with fun, including a large soft play area costing around £70,000, baby and toddler zones, and messy play with painting and modelling dough which parents either couldn't afford or preferred to keep under wraps for the sake of the soft furnishings.
“What I would like to do is create an environment for children. A lot of the play areas are add-ons to something else like pubs or restaurants.
At Lowestoft, they have Adventure Island and I would like to create a similar thing with a possible chiropodist or beautician upstairs.”
Mrs Layfield, who comes from a family whose business portfolio includes the Raynscourt Hotel and the nearby café on the corner both close the Hollywood Cinema, said the play designers
would come in once they gained permission.
She said her husband was “lucky to be alive” following the accident but that unfazed by his disability he had taken on the fishing lakes.
The soft play area would be perfect
for Darren to play with Kayleigh
safely and other parents with restricted mobility who nevertheless wanted
to tumble around with their tots.
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