A FOUR-YEAR dream of creating a play area to meet 21st Century standards in Dunster became a reality last Friday (September 27).

Organisers celebrated the official opening by village headteacher Peter Hoyland of the refurbished Packhorse Playing Fields.

The £38,000 project won substantial grants from the Countryside Agency, the South West Regional Development Agency and Wyvern Waste.

But villagers raised at least £6,500 towards replacing equipment no longer meeting health and safety regulations.

New equipment includes a specially adapted swing for wheelchair users - one of a handful in the region and believed to be the first in West Somerset.

There are two sets of swings, an embankment slide, a roundabout and a new trail with monkey bars, a crawl tunnel and ramp built onto an existing slide, and wooden house.

The opening, in warm sunshine, included a teddy bears' picnic.