A POPULAR West Cumbrian gym owner is calling for help in creating a safe place for local children to play.

Lee Butterworth who owns Xtreme Fitness Gym at Lillyhall has called out for help in creating a safe space at Bleach Green for children to play after noticing their is nowhere for his young children to play near their home.

The father of a 3 year old and newborn said: “It would be nice to have somewhere people could go with little ones to meet up and have a chat.”

The Whitehaven resident put a callout on social media at the weekend and has already began creating a committee of local resident to help with his cause, however is still looking for people to get involved.

The idea is to build a playpark for local children and improve the area that currently is “quite unsafe”by improving the steps and providing a disabled access route.

The field is currently owned by Copeland Council and in recent years has had football posts placed on it however the father thinks that more needs to be done.

He said: ““I just think there’s nothing around here and I know that lots of the funding in the area goes into the poverty-stricken areas which is brilliant, but the kids here need something as well.”

Lee’s idea is to put a plan together that he can take to the council for funding ,as well as creating a 200 club for residents that would see the maintenance and insurance for the park be kept up every month.He said: “This is something that I am 100% going to be going for and once I get the momentum the council will probably not have much choice.”