The RA/LibDem administration want to ensure a sustainable and thriving Elmbridge will always provide opportunities for outdoor play in our hundreds of parks, recreation grounds and open spaces we provide and maintain across the borough.
Among the sandpits, natural play equipment, the swings, slides, zip wires and skateparks we have two paddling pools, both in Weybridge and built in the 1950s, one in Churchfields park and one in Oatlands park. However, they are costly both financially and environmentally: they need filling with fresh water and emptying every day which requires someone on site for up to eleven hours. The third wet-play facility in the Borough is the Hersham splash-pad which was converted from a similar paddling pool; it reduces the need for lengthy filling and emptying and is therefore opened for a much longer period over the summer than the paddling pools.
The first step to reviewing how the pools fit into Elmbridge’s sustainable future will be a public consultation over the next few weeks to understand what residents feel is their preferred way forward for play provision across the Borough.
To many people it is pathetic that the old paddling pools cannot be maintained because of lavish modern procedures which councils shelter behind. Just use common sense to return to the original maintenance procedures, and avoid using expensive ‘modern’ contractors.
In the summer the pools are invaluable to parents with young children. They are places for children to play and to learn to socialise. They are also provide a facility to allow parents, usually mothers but not always, to meet whilst children are amused. They take away isolation, a real problem for new parents. They help with stress and mental health.
Having played in both those paddling pools as a child in the 1960’s and seen my own children enjoy them 40 years later, I know what a wonderful facility they are and how enormously popular on a hot summer’s day. They were always the highlight of a trip to the rec. during summer school holidays. Their removal or replacement would be a great loss., to be avoided at all cost.