Vandal proof fencing at St Michaels Recreation Ground, Tenterden

Background

St Michaels is a village just a stone’s throw from Tenterden town, in the borough of Ashford. In June 2023, Tenterden was named the most stylish place to live in Kent, with famous attractions such as Chapel Down Vineyard and the Kent and East Sussex Railway.

St Michaels recreation ground features a children’s play area, a skate park, public toilets, and a large green used for a variety of sports, activities, and events year-round.

In 2018, a new building was constructed next to the toilet facilities on the green, complete with solar panels and water butts to recycle rainwater, making the building as eco-friendly as possible. The building is a designated maintenance facility, storing groundskeeping equipment and machinery. These tools and easy access storage are essential in helping the village keep up its assignment as a quaint, pastoral village.

After an enquiry from Tenterden Town Council in 2013, Jacksons installed 65m of 1 metre high Anti-Trap Bow Top fencing and 3 matching single leaf gates around the play area. The fencing provides a safe enclosure for children to play independently and keeps dogs and other park users separate from children in the play area. With the recreation ground situated off of the busy A28, a fenced area was essential to keep children from accidentally leaving the play area and going near the road. The fencing was supplied in Blue RAL 5010 polyester powder coating and the gates in Yellow RAL 1018, after being hot dip galvanised. The different colour gate is an inclusive design that provides a contrasting colour, making the entry and exit point for the play area highly visible and easily identifiable for children and visually impaired users. The combination of coatings also provides a highly effective barrier to rust. In addition, 46m of our stock fencing was installed alongside a double leaf timber uni gate.

Over ten years later, the fencing and gates are still standing strong and could almost pass as being new, showing no signs of weathering or corrosion. Due to the processes we employ in the creation of our fencing and gates and the raw materials we select, they are protected from rot, insect attack, and rust. In addition, we supply them with a 25 year guarantee.

To secure the boundary of the new maintenance building and prevent theft and vandalism, new fencing and gates were required.