Plans for a new £773,000 playground in Newham’s largest park have been approved.

The proposals for new play equipment, picnic area and meeting spot in West Ham Park were signed of this week.

The City of London Corporation, which owns the space, said the improvement work would start in the summer.

It comes after more than a third of the park’s equipment and picnic benches had to be removed from the playground “because they were beyond repair”.

West Ham Park, which is Grade II-listed and sees more than 450,000 people visiting each year, is run as a charity.

Oliver Sells QC, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s West Ham Park Committee, said: “The new site will become a popular and much needed resource for local children and enable them to have fun, explore and be active in the outdoors.

“We will make all the improvements we can with our available funding but we welcome donations to get even more new play equipment installed.”