NEW Worcester Mayor Coun Roger Knight took a paddle to celebrate the fifth birthday of the city’s popular Splashpad.
During the peak summer season, the Splashpad, which features jets, sprays and fountains which feed in to a central stream and pools, can attract up to 2,000 visitors to the park per day.
First opening in 2010, the venue was created to replace a former paddling pool built in the 1950s, which had reached the end of its useful life and was often the target of vandalism.
The Splashpad was paid for out of the £1.4m Heritage Lottery Fund awarded to make a number of improvements to Gheluvelt Park – including the creation of a war memorial feature, new play area and refurbished bandstand.
Coun Knight, a former cabinet member for a Cleaner and Greener City, said: “I had the honour of cutting the ribbon at the official opening of the Splashpad five years ago, and am delighted to see how popular it has become.
“It allows families to have free all-day fun, in beautiful, relaxed surroundings,” he added.
Approximately 800,000 individual visits were made to Gheluvelt Park last year and the popular Trip Advisor website currently lists the park as second on its list of Worcester’s top attractions.
Splashpad is now open seven days a week from 11am to 6pm, until the end of August, it will also be open every weekend throughout September, from 11am to 4pm.
