Bingham Park Sheffield: Dream of creating city's 'best little park' a step closer as basketball court opens

It was officially opened at the weekend, marking the latest step in the transformation of Bingham Park since the community stepped in to prevent its run-down tennis courts being ripped up and grassed over.

Next up are plans to turn one of the other old courts into a mini-skatepark and to redevelop the third court, potentially as a second basketball court, for which Bingham Park Community Group is trying to raise up to £100,000.

Sheffield’s Lord Mayor Sioned-Mair Richards donned her trainers to officially open the new court, which was funded through donations from the local community and organisations like Sheffield Town Trust, JG Graves Foundation and Henry Boot, on Saturday, July 9.

Mike Jones, a committee member of the community group, said: “We want it to be the best little park in Sheffield.

Park became a refuge for skaters during the pandemic, and the next step is to create a mini skatepark

“The basketball court is hugely popular. You’ll often find four different groups of kids playing on it after school. The nets can be switched from basketball to netball, too, and we want to encourage local netball teams to also use it.

“Our next big project is fundraising for and developing a mini skatepark, for which plans are already being drawn up with the support of Sheffield Council, on one of the two remaining courts.

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“That’s a big project that will take perhaps two years but it's a really important one because one of the old tennis courts is incredibly popular with local skaters and it became a bit of a refuge for them during the pandemic.”

As well as the new basketball court and the two old tennis courts which are slated for redevelopment, the park also boasts two pay-and-play tennis courts.

Mr Jones told how it was great to see so many people of all ages using the new court and enjoying the park as a whole.

“It’s a small community park and it’s great how people have really come together to help us get this far,” he said.

“Now we need to raise the money to get the mini-skatepark built and redevelop the third court.”

For more about the park, and to support the fundraising appeal, visit: https://www.facebook.com/Binghampark.