A RUNDOWN play area which has been transformed with a �50,000 grant was officially opened on Sunday.The hard court area between Morton Road and St George's Road in Pakefield, near Lowestoft, had been closed since 2005 but now it has been resurfaced to provide a play space for local children.

A RUNDOWN play area which has been transformed with a �50,000 grant was officially opened on Sunday.

The hard court area between Morton Road and St George's Road in Pakefield, near Lowestoft, had been closed since 2005 but now it has been resurfaced to provide a play space for local children.

The hard court area now has new fencing and basketball equipment, paid for by a Playbuilder grant, and is ready to be used by community groups and the Morton Road Youth Centre. It was officially opened on Sunday by Lowestoft mayor Malcolm Cherry.

Denise Causier, Suffolk County Council's play officer, said: 'This is a fantastic facility. After a year of hard work, it now looks super. There is play space here for the under-13s and also facilities for older children.'

Mr Cherry said: 'It is great to see a project where young people have been involved from the start, which I'm sure will make them feel like this really is theirs and they will look after it.'

The hard court area was closed in 2005 after it fell into disrepair and some neighbours complained about anti-social behaviour.

Earlier this year, a petition against having open, unsupervised access at the site was sent to Suffolk County Council but now a local steering group has been set up to look after the area.

Rosemary Eastwood, a member of the steering group and who lives next door to the court, said: 'Hopefully this will be a new start for the facility. Some of us living right next to the court had problems in the past, but now it looks great and hopefully the community and children will take ownership to deal with any problems in the future.'