This is what a Carlisle park will look like when a massive renovation of its flood-hit play area is complete.

Bitts Park was deluged with water when Storm Desmond struck in December and has been out of action ever since.

But the legions of families who use the park could soon be enjoying the facility again as repair work is set to begin shortly.

Carlisle City Council says the cost of repairs and improvements will be in the region of £300,000, with only a third being covered by insurance.

Phil Gray, the council’s green spaces manager, said: “We need to try and get the whole job done in one go.

“But we are hoping to get the work done so that children can start enjoying the new play park before the end of the summer.”

The council is well aware of Bitts Park’s popularity.

Mr Gray said: “If you go into Bitts Park on a regular summer’s day, the play area is so popular there.

“There are literally hundreds of people there at any one time.

“It’s very popular, so we are conscious that at the moment it’s fenced off and a building site and that’s not what we want.

“But we haven’t been sitting around waiting for something to happen. Now all the orders are in and we’re in the hands of the contractors.

“Suppliers don’t often have stocks of this kind of stuff, you order and then it is manufactured.

“We did say we want this as fast as you can because we need families to be able to use the equipment.”

The council says that while the park has been out of action, it has taken the opportunity to not only look at how to repair it, but also how to improve it.

In particular, a new piece of high-level climbing equipment in the centre of the park is expected to impress users. The popular splash park will also return.

The delay in work beginning on the play area, which sits next to the Urban Adventure high ropes course, has been put down to the complexity of the job and the council wanting to ensure everything is as safe as possible.

Flood water, containing very fine silt, got into much of the equipment and, in particular, the “splash park” area, which had a lot of electronic and mechanical parts.