A COUNCILLOR has this week hit out at North Wiltshire District Council for spending £675,000 on professional advice for its new headquarters, rather than upgrade local playgrounds.

John Thomson, district councillor for Sherston, claimed playgrounds in the Malmesbury area urgently needed funding.

He criticised a decision by Malmesbury's Area Committee to postpone allocating grants to three playgrounds at Luckington, Brinkworth and Malmesbury to November, so the possibility of alternative costings and funding can be looked at.

"Here we are, crying over whether we can give funding to three playgrounds, but we can spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on consultants to advise us how to build a smart office," he said. "Is this not missing the point?"

The council's new headquarters are being built in Monkton Park, Chippenham, as part of a £50m Private Funding Initiative deal.

Mr Thomson, however, said delays in the final signing of the deal had cost the council an extra £425,000 in solicitors' fees and professional advice.

He said consultants' bills for the project had been estimated at £250,000.

"We could have built all three playgrounds with that money, and fixed Malmesbury's toilets and carried out urgent work on the town hall," he said.

Luckington Parish Council applied to the Area Committee for £20,000 grant aid to revamp the village playground, having already raised £5,000.

Parish councillor Kim Findlay told the committee: "The villages of Luckington and Alderton are crying out for modern, safe play equipment for young children."

"The closest facilities are in Sherston or Acton Turville, which is a car ride away," he said. "This is unacceptable with a population of 140 children under the age of 16.

"Existing play equipment is more than 40 years old and will have to be removed within two to three years because it does not comply with current safety standards," he said.

Brinkworth Recreation Trust director Jim Humm said his village was asking for £20,640 to improve the playground for the village's 116 families with children under nine years of age, and 161 teenagers.

"The play facilities available are limited to a recreation field in which there are two football goalposts, four swings, a slide, and a climbing frame," he said.

"The play equipment has been there for many years and is now delapidated."

Malmesbury Town Council has also asked the committee to put aside £10,000 to help the Action for Children in Reeds Farm Group build a new playground.

North Wiltshire District Council leader David Packham said the increased costs of the new offices would not affect community projects or schemes which had been budgeted for in the current financial year.