All aboard! Restored boat takes pride of place in play area

All aboard: Ross Irving, of Cranebrook Developments (left) and Peter Hardy, of Eco Sustainable Solutions (right) with staff and children at Longham Community Pre-School and their new play boat.

Youngsters at an East Dorset pre-school are all at sea thanks to the generosity of two companies.

Longham Community Pre-School is now the proud owner of a restored boat in its play area.

The boat, formerly a washed-up wreck, was donated by Ross Irving of Ferndown-based Cranebrook Developments Limited.

In what became a labour of love, the father-of-three completely rebuilt and repainted the craft.

The boat has now taken pride of place in the pre-school’s play area with landscape materials, including woodchip, donated by Parley-based Eco Sustainable Solutions.

Ross, whose two children Cassia, two, and Jonathan, four, attend the pre-school, said: “It was a lot of work but I’m really pleased at how it’s turned out. The kids seem to love it.”

Peter Hardy, Eco’s Commercial Director, added: “This has been a great community project and we’re very pleased to have been a part of it.”

Leanne Blackley, the pre-school’s Joint Manager, said: “The boat is a wonderful addition to our play area.

“We’re very grateful to Ross and Eco Sustainable Solutions for their generosity.”    

Note to journalists:

Eco Sustainable Solutions was founded in 1993 and now employs 34 people with an annual turnover of £12 million. The company, based at Parley in Dorset, annually processes 150,000 tonnes of material at Parley, the UK’s leading purpose-built site for organics recycling and renewable energy. End products include enriched topsoil, compost and woodchip. Eco currently handles 250,000 tonnes of organic material each year across four facilities, including its highly successful anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Piddlehinton near Dorchester.

For more information please contact: Andrew Diprose, Director, Deep South Media, on 01202 534487.