Saturday 17 May 2008 was another Red Letter Day in Warminster, when boating returned to the Boating Lake in the town’s Lake Pleasure Grounds, after an absence of a few years. Danny Howell went along on the launch day to meet the operator of the new venture, Steve Welling, Chairman of the Friends Of Warminster Park, as he hired out pedaloes to those who wanted to enjoy themselves on the waters around the two picturesque islands. Steve, who is the former proprietor of the King of Cod fish and chip shop at Boreham Field but continues to run his King of Bounce amusements hire business which is based at the Old Piggeries, at Rye Hill, near Longbridge Deverill, had this to say:
“The Friends Of Warminster Park have been going for a few years now. They went through a period of doldrums a couple of years ago and then I took on the role of Chair last year. The present Committee is myself as Chairman, Pippa Rideout as Secretary, Chris March as Treasurer, Bill Parks, Heather Parks (Town Clerk), Peter Campbell (of the Model Boat Club) , and Margaret Broughton. We’ve worked at it and last year we did a consultation process as to what people wanted to see and enjoy in the Park. The number one thing was the paddling pool. Starting from this Monday (19 May 2008) there will be a renovation of the paddling pool to bring it back into use. It will be made safe and secure. The next thing on the list was boats for the lake, which have now been purchased, and the next things we will be looking into will be shelters and graffiti boards and other bits and pieces around the Park.”
“We are doing these things in conjunction with the Town Council, the District Council, and English Landscapes. Pippa Ridout, the Secretary of the Friends, has done a marvellous job. She got us funding from the Fudge Trust and the Dewey Trust. They have supplied money which we have used on the paddling pool with the District Council. The Friends gained £7,000 through the Fudge Trust and the Dewey Trust.”
“I’ve taken it on my own back to run the boats. I’m running them with the help of the Friends of Warminster Park. I’ve been running bouncy castles here for years, before I was involved with the Friends. A lot of people who used our bouncy castles kept asking if and when boats would be coming back to Warminster Park. People were asking for a return of the boats. When the Friends did a consultation process last year we invited suggestions and comments from people when we had a stall at the Mayor’s Fun Day, down here, and we did the same at the Warminster Carnival Fun Day, also here, last year. Plus, when we ran the bouncy castles at the Greenland Hut, the Scout hut in the Park, which we do quite often, we held a consultation there. We asked people what they wanted to see in the Park. It was an on-going process. The response was very good. People were telling us what they wanted to happen. The top answers were paddling pool, boats, and kiosk.”
“The problem with the paddling pool was that its condition was liable to create injuries. There is a concrete kerb edging all the way round it and the bottom of the pool was slippery. Children could have slipped and hurt themselves on the concrete edging. I believe there might have been some accidents but fortunately the injuries were only minor ones. The chances of something more serious happening were quite high. If you’ve got a slippery surface, if you’ve got water, and if you’ve got a kerb edging, you know, things can happen. So, what we have done is liaise with the District Council. A contractor is starting the work on Monday. There is going to be a rectangular shaped pool with rubber kerb edgings around it instead of concrete, a non-slip bottom which will be flat, and a slope at one end for disabled access. And a rubber area all around. They are, more or less, going to replace everything that is there.”
“Boats for the Lake came next on people’s wish list. We’ve bought six pedaloes. We’ve bought the boats from a guy named Sparky, who previously ran them here. They are the same boats that were here before. Sparky ran the pedaloes before and he also ran the ice-cream kiosk. That was probably three or four years ago. It was a little while ago. They were his boats and the Friends of Warminster Park have bought them. They cost £500 each. They look like they’re made of fibreglass but they’re not. They are made of a moulded plastic, done in a big mould I should think and welded together. Nearly indestructible really. They are fairly maintenance free. They’ve got an aluminium rudder, aluminium props and nylon bearings. They should last for years.”
“Warminster Lions Club have agreed to sponsor one of the boats, one of the yellow ones. They have given the Friends of Warminster Park £500. It will display the Lions logo and their information. We have approached 60 different companies with letters asking them if they would like to sponsor a boat. The Lions, as I said, have already said yes and we are waiting to hear from others. We could end up with the cost of all the boats covered by sponsorship. The boats, when not in use, will be stored in the boathouse and some of them will be chained up to the islands.”
“The boats seat four easily and you can get a fifth passenger on the front as well. The hire charge is £4 per boat for 20 minutes. That isn’t too bad. If there are four people in the boa that’s £1 person. We have to charge £4 per boat to cover the costs. There is the cost of insurance, £900 plus, per year, and a setting up fee of £200. The insurance comes to nearly £1,300. And you can guarantee it will be more next year. We were asked by the insurers if it ever flooded down here! I told them it’s a lake! We were asked if the boat-house floods? I said there’s water in it, it’s a boat-house! They asked me what it was built of and when I said it’s concrete and brick, they said that’s fine. We’ve also had to pay a licence fee to English Landscapes. The District Council have passed control of the Park to English Landscapes. We’ve had to deal with them. We’ve got a licence; we’re just waiting for the invoice to come through. The licence has cost £50 for the year. I’ve arranged £5 million public liability. We’ve got theft and fire insurance and we’ve got employer’s liability. You name it, it’s all there and it has to be paid for. We’ve also had to buy life-jackets. They came out at about £30 each and we’ve got 12 red ones, 18 blue ones, a few other ones and a couple of the baby-jackets. We’ve still got more jackets to come. And we’ve had the additional cost of purchasing boat hooks, a throw line, and first aid kits. I have had to do a risk assessment, and a method statement of how all this is going to operate. All the paperwork has gone to English Landscapes and they’ve had to send it off to London for their health and safety people to check. Of course there will be a tendency for some naughty youngsters to do silly things and policing is a great difficulty but one thing we can do, for the ones we think are going to be troublemakers, is to operate a deposit system. Obviously if they mess about they won’t get their deposit back. It will be a bit like a fine system.”
“At the moment the Lake is 650 mil deep. As far as I’m aware the general condition of the water in the Lake is A-okay. One of the giveaways is that we’ve got healthy fish and healthy birds living on it. There are a few bits and pieces in the bottom that need to be cleaned out. One of the promises we’ve got is that the Town Council have pledged £10,000 to clean the Lake out. That is going to happen as soon as we can find a contractor. The Friends of Warminster Park are looking for a contractor at the moment who is capable of coming down and cleaning it all out.”
“One or two people have complained that boating will affect the birds on the lake. You go to other lakes and there’s no problem for the birds there. You go to Shearwater and there’s birds and boats there. There’s a lake at Westbury, again used as a boating lake, and there’s no problems for the birds there. There are birds nesting on the islands in our Park lake at the moment. There are ducks and swans here, and I’ve just seen a heron take off. The heron is here most days. He’s usually down on the second island. I haven’t heard officially from the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust who run Smallbrook Meadows but I gather they weren’t at all happy about the reintroduction of boating on the Park Lake. I’ve only seen the letters on the back page of the Warminster Journal. Somebody had a go a couple of months ago, saying this will happen and that will happen, and there will be cruelty to this and that.”
“My reply is to ask what the Lake was originally built for. At the end of the day, you’ve got to remember that this is a boating lake. It was designed and built as a boating lake back in the 1920s – hence boating. There has always been, apart from a few interludes, boating on this lake. I am sure it won’t take long for the wildlife to get used to the boats being back here. Boating will probably enhance the water quality. Pedaloes splashing about will keep the water oxygenated. A year or so ago they had to have pumps here to oxygenate the water. They said there was no movement in the water. The pedaloes will go some way to solve that. One thing we are hoping to do is to put up some information boards so people can read what the species of ducks and other birds are here. A bit of signage will be good.”
“Today, the first day of boating, has been good. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes in the coming weeks. We’ve got three boats here in use today. I had a transport problem but I borrowed a friend’s lorry to go and get them. They were out at Springleaze, on the Bath Road; you know where the potato shop is? Opposite there, that is where the boats were being stored. I will go back tonight and pick up the other three boats. Tomorrow we will be fully operational with six pedaloes. We had a notice in the Warminster Journal last week but we won’t need to advertise in the future. We will rely on people coming down here to the Park. We will not operate the boats when the weather is bad or the children are in school. We will operate in the school holidays and at weekends and possibly sometimes after school in the evenings. That’s the plan. We must hope it works and takes off. I will not be running it on my own. I shall have a couple of helpers working for me. I think the use of the pedaloes will take off in a big way. I think the word will spread. Those who come here and have fun on the boats will tell others.”
“The Friends of Warminster Park are looking forward to the future. I think it will be nice to see the erection of some shelters in the Park. If you’ve got a windy day and there’s a shelter, you can sit in the shelter. People have said they want picnic benches. There are all bits and pieces we can get. Graffiti boards have been mentioned. Some of the things in the Park are suffering because of cut-backs. Money has been cut back and hours have been cut back. Time is not being given to what should be done. Unfortunately that’s the way it goes. It’s still a cracking place though. If you speak to people in the Park you’ll find they’re coming from Salisbury, Shaftesbury and Bradford. They say it’s the best park for miles around. It’s a small one but it’s the best one in Wiltshire. Other parks haven’t got what we’ve got here, like a lake. The potential for Warminster Park is huge but it needs a bit of life-blood pumped into it. It’s been starved for so long. it wants a bit of umph. We can kick-start it by buying the boats and renovating the paddling pool. The potential for Warminster Park is phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.”