A CHILDREN’S soft play area and café in Rhyl has been sold and is to re-open with a new owner, name and design.

“Planet Play”, on Vale Road, was set up by owner Jan Vann and wife Sarah, three years ago, but the couple decided to sell due to personal reasons.

An asking price of £12,000 was met, which covers all of the soft and outdoor play equipment and other facilities at the premises, while the property will be leased at £650 per month.

Taking on the site is Rhyl resident Lauren Jones, who is rebranding it as “Lollie’s Play Cafe”, which she hopes to open on the weekend beginning Friday, October 14.

This is the first business venture for Lauren, whose background is in social care, but having regularly visited Planet Play with her family, she was keen to take the site on and put her own stamp on it.

Named after a childhood nickname of Lauren’s, she hopes to build on the good work Jay and Sarah have put in, and wants to make the site “more of a community base”.

Jay and his wife, meanwhile, will continue to run the other “Planet Play” site in Towyn.

Lauren said: “I’d been looking for the right opportunity for a while, and I’d been visiting Planet Play ever since Sarah and Jay have had it, with my five-year-old daughter.

“I just liked that it was a really close-knit community thing – my cousins and I have always come here with our kids, so I thought I’d go for it and see what I could do.

“It’s a completely new thing for me; we’ve got lots of ideas. I’ve got lots of support from my partner and family, but it’s just me (running the business).

“I’m going to decorate and rebrand it, because Jay and Sarah still have Planet Play in Towyn, and they’ve worked hard to build that brand, but it’s still going to be a children’s centre.

“We’re still going have soft play, and parties for hire. We’re going to move towards food a little more, with things like all-day breakfasts, so that it’s a bit more of a café.

“I’d like to make it a bit more of a community base, so I’ve thought about doing mother-and-toddler sessions, things like that.

“We’re going to have an opening event, hopefully that weekend, with half-price play sessions, and a mascot, and we’re going to have a Halloween event, so there’s lots to get sorted!

“Jay and Sarah have been great with the transfer and have offered so much support, ideas and tips moving forward. They’ve been amazing, and have highlighted so many things to me.”

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Entertainment for children at “Planet Play” in Rhyl included soft play, slime-making, paint pottery, “Digger Den”, a bouncy castle, food and drink and “Build a Bear”.

Jay added how pleased he was to sell the Rhyl site to someone he described as “the perfect fit” for the site.

He said: “We had so much interest. I even had charities and caravan parks (interested), but Lauren was one of the first people I saw, and I just thought she would suit it.

“I think she’s got a good vision – that’s what I wanted. She was the perfect fit.

“I didn’t want anyone to copy Planet Play; I wanted someone who would do their own thing and put their own stamp on it, and I think that’s what she’s going to do, so I was quite happy for her to take it over.”

For more information on Lollie's Play Cafe, go to: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086295315108.