Coate Water splash park to reopen on Sunday

Swindon Borough Council says the splash park at Coate Water will reopen this Sunday - 8 June - following repairs.

The council says that since the closure earlier this week, the manufacturer of the facility has been working tirelessly to make the necessary repairs and get the splash park opened as soon as possible for children to enjoy again.

Some of the flooring tiles came loose because the concrete underneath them failed and needed to be re-secured. As the park is still under warranty, the manufacturer undertook repairs at no cost to the council.

Regular maintenance was undertaken during the off-season with no concerns reported, but this issue arose once the park was in regular use.

The manufacturer will return in the next off-season to undertake a thorough evaluation of the site so we don’t have this situation again next summer.

In addition, the council says it has also listened to feedback from residents, both online and via email, telling it loud and clear that the 18 degree temperature limit to opening the splash park was too high. The council has scrapped this condition for now, allowing the facility to be open more frequently, and will monitor the situation throughout the season.

Cllr Marina Strinkovsky, Cabinet Member for Placemaking and Planning, said: “I was very disappointed when the splash park closed at the start of the week, especially with it being such a new facility.

“It was good that the manufacturer worked so quickly to make the repairs and get the splash park ready to reopen, but we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again so I look forward to the off-season inspection and thorough report.

“I’d like to thank our officers for their hard work this week, identifying the issue, getting the contractor on site and communicating to the public in good time. I look forward to seeing children and families enjoying the splash park once again.

“I’m very aware that some people thought the 18 degree limit on the splash park opening was excessive. We’ve always had a policy that it wouldn’t open in bad weather, and last year when the new splash park opened we thought it would be good to have a specific threshold for clarity.

"Having listened to resident feedback and having had internal discussions, we’ve decided this was too strict and have relaxed the definition again.

“We’ll still have to close it if the weather gets too bad, such as storms or really cold temperatures, but hopefully this will be on very rare occasions.”