Plans for a new play area at the Welsh Wildlife Centre near Cardigan have been submitted to Pembrokeshire County Council.

The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales seeks permission for a children’s Play Area comprising timber play equipment and associated ground works at the Welsh Wildlife Centre, Cilgerran.

The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales (WTSWW) is the fourth largest Wildlife Trust in the UK, managing 110 nature reserves, including Skomer and Skokholm island.

The Welsh Wildlife Centre, within the Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve, provides a range of facilities including a visitor centre with shop and display rooms, café and WTSWW offices, together with a visitor car park, play area, walking trails, bird hides and a cottage for self-catering guests.

The site of the proposed play area is located on an informal grassland meadow recreation area to the northwest of the visitor centre, using Robinia hardwood logs and sawn timber, ropes and hand-woven nets manufactured using steel reinforced polypropylene, with the appearance of traditional hemp cordage, the applicants say.

A supporting statement accompanying the application says the design proposal, produced by Earth Wrights Ltd, is about “increasing play value and creating a place inclusive for everyone”.

“Once the vision was clarified, the play area was designed with the key objectives of enhancing the existing informal recreation space and increasing opportunities for different types of play.

“The proposed play area will comprise a variety of timber play equipment, with interconnecting ropes and hand-woven nets, to provide a range of play activities for children of all ages. The play equipment will be constructed of natural materials, using durable, Robinia logs and sawn timber.

“The proposed play area will be small scale, extending to 100 square metres in surface area and just 2m in height, ensuring that the timber play equipment will be visually unobtrusive with no adverse impacts on the local landscape or visual amenity of the area.

“The additional visitors and users of the play equipment would generate minimal and localised noise impacts, confined to the Welsh Wildlife Centre complex itself, with no impacts upon residential properties or other sensitive receptors, given the extensive separation distances to neighbouring development.”

The application will be considered by county planners at a later date.