Lobley Park reopens after extensive upgrades

After months of upgrades, Lobley Park is now open to the public, featuring a brand-new playground with a rubberized surface made of thousands of recycled tires. The new surface aims to improve accessibility, particularly for children and caregivers with disabilities or who are wheelchair users. 

The upgrades to Lobley Park include a new main play structure and playhouse, an accessible net climber and seesaw, a larger swing structure with a multi-person friendship swing, and a park trampoline. 

“This is an exciting project for our community—not only are we improving Lobley Park, making it safer and more accessible for all users, we’re also making strides to support our climate action goals by recycling and reusing more than 2,000 tires,” said Mayor Mike Hurley in a statement. “Tire Stewardship BC played an integral role in this project and we’re grateful to have their support.” 

Plans started for the playground in December 2022 when council approved upgrades for several city parks. The city divided the playgrounds into three categories: basic, enhanced, and destination. 

Lobley Park was in the basic category, meaning it had a budget of about $300,000. The Beacon reached out to the city’s public affairs department for more information about the exact cost of the park but did not receive a response prior to publication, so it is not clear whether the park was completed within budget or if it was above budget. 

The city received a $30,000 grant from Tire Stewardship BC’s community grant program to cover part of the cost of the playground. According to Rosemary Sutton, executive director of Tire Stewardship BC, for a venue to qualify for the grant, it must be a public venue such as a public park or walkway. 

“We set aside funds every year to provide funding up to $30,000 matching funds to a community that uses BC recycled rubber in their projects, and that can be anything from arena flooring to running tracks to playgrounds,” Sutton told the Beacon. “Since we started in 2009, we have awarded grants to just under 350 projects, and that’s to 94 communities throughout British Columbia. The funds that we have provided so far are $6.3 million.”

The recycling and community grant programs are funded by eco-fees collected from the sale of each tire. 

Sutton spoke with the Beacon about the process by which tires are recycled into useful surfaces. She said 100% of every tire is recycled; the rubber is transformed into rubberized surfaces such as the one in Lobley Park or other applications, while the metal is recycled elsewhere into different items. The fibre is used in generating energy. 

Sutton said the surfaces made from recycled tires tend to be durable and long-lasting, although she could not say exactly how long they would last. 

“The beauty of it is that if something happens to the surface, they’re actually able to just fix the surface. They don’t actually have to come in and actually remove the whole playground and start again, because there’s a significant base of crumb rubber that’s used in the playground, which creates that spongy feeling,” Sutton said. “What they can do is they can just come in and remove that top layer, and then they can replace that, so they’re not actually having to remove the whole playground unless there’s other significant damage.” 

Sutton said that among the benefits of these types of surfaces is improved accessibility for children and their caregivers, particularly those with disabilities who use mobility aids. It also provides a cushioned surface for toddlers and small children who either crawl or tumble onto the ground often, giving them a softer place to land. 

“There are kids that have accessibility issues, there are caregivers of kids that have accessibility issues, so that eliminates all of that and creates a level playing field where now these children and their caregivers can now access the surface,” she said. “There are children that use this that can’t even walk yet. So you’ve got, you know, kids under one and they’re crawling and crawling on pea gravel is not the most comfortable way to access the playground.” 

According to Cole Wagner, public affairs officer with the city, Lobley Park will be highlighted on “Day of Play” in May 2025, although the exact date has yet to be determined.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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