Kids town for youth city

CASEY could soon boast the biggest and best playground in the country.
Councillors at Tuesday night’s council meeting moved to investigate the possibility of establishing a Kids Town in the city.
Based on the existing Ardmona Kids Town in Shepparton, the Casey development would provide a largescale community adventure playground for the city’s growing youth population.
The Shepparton facility is known as Australia’s number one children’s playground and offers a range of play areas on a site as large as the MCG.
It attracts an estimated 150,000 visitors to the area per year, of which 60 per cent are from outside Shepparton.
Casey Council has appointed a working group to investigate the concept in Casey, identifying three potential sites including Casey Fields, Casey Central Town Park and Gunns Road Reserve in Hallam.
The project would rely heavily on community support and State Government funding.
A report presented to the council stated that similar projects in other communities had become important play spaces for young people.
“They have also provided a vehicle for many facets of the community to work together and contribute to an important project delivering significant benefits of community partnership, pride and ownership,” the report said.
Myuna Ward councillor Brian Oates welcomed the news, claiming a Kids Town would be extremely well utilised among young people in Casey.
“The city with the state’s largest youth population deserves to have leading edge facilities,” he said.