By Duncan Bick

Last updated at 12:28, Saturday, 09 March 2013

A fast food restaurant is being demolished – but part of it will live on as somewhere children can have fun.

Construction Partnership UK staff at the former Burger King site

The former Burger King at St Nicholas Gate Retail Park, London Road, Carlisle, is in the process of being torn down to make way for parking spaces.

But the equipment that made up its soft play area will be passed onto a children’s charity.

The firms carrying out the work did not want to this kit to end up in a skip.

“It would be a shame to knock it down,” said John Fitzpatrick, 40, the project manager for the demolition. He works for Construction Partnership UK (CPUK), which is running the project.

“We will be salvaging this and giving it to a good home.”

The equipment, which was made with a steel frame and bolted onto the building, was carefully extracted from the building and loaded by crane onto a lorry.

All of the work was done by site staff in their own time. Mr Fitzpatrick guessed that they had spent the equivalent of two days removing the equipment. He added that this work would have cost about £7,000 to 8,000 to complete had the firm, and subcontractors charged for it.

The kit will be stored in Whitehaven and will later be handed over to Cash for Kids, a charity run by radio station CFM, who will find a suitable home for it, possibly in a respite centre.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: “We try to invest in our community and leave a legacy.”

Staff from CPUK’s subcontractors – J & J Nichol and the DSD construction group – have also been involved with rescuing the equipment, and these firms also put up money to fund the work.

John Nichol, 63, the managing director of J & J Nichol, said: “It is not take and take, you have got to put something back – so I thought this was the right thing to do.”

Staff at Burger King were given redundancy notices in January. The restaurant’s closure followed the departure of Toys R Us last year.

A Burger King spokeswoman said: “Burger King has been working closely with our franchise partner and staff at the London Road restaurant in an effort to identify opportunities for employment at alternative Burger King restaurants.”

First published at 11:12, Saturday, 09 March 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk