{"id":1976747,"date":"2026-06-06T05:09:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T02:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1976747"},"modified":"2026-06-06T05:09:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T02:09:51","slug":"council-defends-delayed-opening-to-splash-park-in-st-albans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1976747","title":{"rendered":"Council defends delayed opening to splash park in St Albans"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/609b\/live\/31e5f4b0-5f37-11f1-b9e6-7bbc2b9cb9c1.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"CHRISTINECHRISTINE MATTHEWS\/GEOGRAPH<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The splash park in Verulamium Park in St Albans used to be open from May -September<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A splash park “cannot open and shut like a tap”, a councillor said, after calls for it to welcome visitors earlier than planned following the warm weather.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The attraction in Verulamium Park, St Albans, is due to open from 8 July despite others already operating in Hertfordshire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Children used to be able to enjoy themselves from May but Helen Campbell, lead councillor for sport and leisure, parks and parking on St Albans City and District Council, said the delay was down to “severe budget shortfalls”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Green Party, who set up a petition criticising the decision, said “opening the splash park sooner would be a small investment that could make a big difference to local children.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It said Everyone Active, which runs the splash park on behalf of the council, “recently reported profits of \u00a39m, up by around 50%”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However, Chris Traill, strategic director for community and place delivery, said: “Unfortunately, we cannot open and shut the facility like a tap when the weather perks up outside of the scheduled dates for both operational and financial reasons.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The BBC has approached Everyone Active for a response.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GreenGreen Party<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Livvy Gibbs (left) and Sally Leonard, from the Green Party, said most splash parks in Hertfordshire welcomed back families in May in time for the hot weather<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Long-range forecasts from the Met Office and MeteoGroup \u2013 the latter being providers of BBC Weather data – suggest the summer ahead will bring the risk of additional heatwaves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A “few notable high temperature spikes” are also possible according to MeteoGroup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The council said work to prepare the splash park in St Albans for visitors to cool off from the warm weather takes about a month. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Before each opening, we are required to test the microbiological quality of the chlorinated water to ensure there are no health risks. This task is undertaken by experts from an external contractor and takes around two weeks,” Traill added. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“There is a requirement for the system to be fully operational for a minimum of 14 days prior to opening.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a social media post, Campbell said discussions have started about the possibility of setting an earlier date for the opening of the splash park next year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Do you have a story suggestion for Beds, Herts or Bucks? Contact us below.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on <\/i>BBC Sounds<\/i>, <\/i>Facebook<\/i>, <\/i>Instagram<\/i> and <\/i>X<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cy429npn957o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/609b\/live\/31e5f4b0-5f37-11f1-b9e6-7bbc2b9cb9c1.jpg”] CHRISTINE MATTHEWS\/GEOGRAPH The splash park in Verulamium Park in St Albans used to be open from May -September A splash park “cannot open and shut like a tap”, a councillor said, after calls for it to welcome visitors earlier than planned following the warm weather. The attraction in Verulamium Park, St Albans, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-1976747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1976747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1976747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1976747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1976747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}