On Friday, Dr Neil Hudson, MP for Penrith and The Border, launched Plumpton Primary School’s newly transformed playground.

In addition to looking around the refurbished playground - complete with new adventure trail, play panels and games tables - Dr Hudson took part in a question-and-answer session with children.

The complete overhaul of the play area was thanks to an enormous community fundraising effort. During Dr Hudson’s last visit in 2019, he met to support fundraising committee members who were in the midst of crowdfunding and applying for grants.

The school playground is open out of school hours for the whole community and is the only safe place for youngsters to play in the village.

Dr Neil Hudson said:

“It was great to be back at  Plumpton Primary School again to see the community’s hard work pay off. Now parents in Plumpton can have peace of mind knowing there is a safe place for their children to play.

“One of my favourite parts of being an MP is meeting youngsters from across the constituency and seeing the pupils of Plumpton Primary School was no exception.

“The children’s questions were so thoughtful that I could easily have mistaken the Q and A session for a Parliamentary debate.

“Well done to everyone who worked so hard to make the refurbishment a reality.”

Headteacher, Sarah Penny, said:

"On Friday 22nd April we were delighted to welcome Dr Neil Hudson MP back to our school to answer questions from our Year 5/Year 6 pupils. The children asked Neil a wide range of questions about his life as an MP and were interested to hear about his work as a vet and which football team he supports.

"It was an honour for Neil to officially open Plumpton’s Community Play Area whilst visiting school and to share the success of the community’s fundraising efforts."