A FURNESS firm that ensures children get a soft landing if they take a tumble from playground kit is more than doubling its workforce, reports Jennie Dennett.

Abacus Playgrounds Ltd of Bardsea, near Ulverston, is recruiting six more shop floor workers plus three more administration staff to stretch its workforce to 15.

Northern area manager Richard Goodson said the move was part of a £500,000 expansion programme for Abacus to further develop the market for its bespoke rubber surfaces in northern England, Scotland and Ireland.

The Furness operation began in November 2003 as an offshoot of the ten-year-old Kent-based company to expand in the north a market that has proved more than receptive.

Abacus counts among its clientele local authorities, schools, nurseries and the leisure industry, which are all keen to install more forgiving rubber surfaces beneath their playgrounds partly as a result of an increasing litigious society.

The firm, which is a key sub-contractor for thriving Haverthwaite playground equipment makers Playdale Playgrounds Ltd, buys in rubbers granules from Nottinghamshire.

The granules, which are chiefly made from recycled tyres, are then mixed with a polymer resin by Abacus and laid like tarmac in playgrounds by their fitters. The top layer can also be coloured to create child-pleasing designs.

"Following more job cuts at Glaxo, to be creating new jobs is a really positive thing," said Mr Goodson. "It's good to have that glimmer of hope that things will pick up."

Abacus's expansion has been partly helped by a North West Development Agency grant from development agency Furness Enterprise, which has enabled the firm to buy new vehicles and train staff. Mr Goodson said the agency "deserved a pat on the back" for bringing firms to the area.

"We were thinking about going further east. It was down to Furness Enterprise saying these opportunities are available here' that we came.

"We are very happy at Bardsea. We really appreciate everything they have done, they have been fantastic."

Abacus is one of the first firms to benefit from the successful campaign by Furness Enterprise to reverse cuts in grant aid for local firms.

The company received a five-figure sum under the DTI-funded selective finance for investment grant scheme, which offers discretionary cash assistance to firms.

FE industrial development manager Stuart Klosinski said the agency had helped Abacus to make the case for grant aid.

As a result, the firm had acquired the former concrete works at Bardsea and set up a permanent base in the area, leading to 15 jobs, he said.