Banstead villagers will present a petition with more than 600 signatures to the council tomorrow complaining about a playground’s “makeover”.

Parents said the Lady Neville recreation ground, in Banstead, was once a popular park with swings for toddlers and older children, slides, climbing frames, roundabouts and seesaws.

But Reigate and Banstead Council halved the size of the playground when it spent £463,000 refurbishing it, along with improving the Lady Neville Pavilion and the toilets, and building a new café.

Campaigners submitted a petition with 603 signatures in July this year, and councillors are due to debate it tomorrow night.

The document reads: “Sadly on re-opening the children have discovered that, whilst the toilets have had an impressive (and much needed) makeover and there is now a café overlooking newly landscaped gardens, ideal for the adults, the playground has not had a makeover but a makeunder.

“Why is our children’s playground so small now, where have all the play things gone? Why is there no slide, no big swings, no roundabout, no sandpit?

“Why have our children been the ones to lose out in the refurbishment of the recreation ground?”