GRANTS totalling nearly £10,000 have seen a village’s dream of building an outdoor gym come true.

South Somerset District Council (SSDC) has awarded a grant of £1,638 to complete the funding plan for Barrington Parish Council.

This followed grants from Big Lottery Awards For All, the Police Commissioner’s Fund, and the Tesco Bags of Help scheme.

The idea for the project began when a group of young people explained to Barrington Parish Council that they had outgrown the children’s play area and asked the Council to help provide some outdoor fitness equipment for the village.

Marion Lewis, Barrington Parish Council chairman, said: “We don’t get a lot of young people attending our meetings so it was a nice surprise to have a group come to our meeting with such a positive idea.

“We hope to have the equipment installed this summer and are planning some training sessions to teach people of all ages how to make the best use of it.”

Cllr Derek Yeomans said: “The entire village have worked together to get this project off the ground and raise the money from various sources.

“The effort and dedication has been quite outstanding.”