New water play area at Coate causes a splash (From Swindon Advertiser)

New water play area at Coate causes a splash

7:10am Monday 2nd July 2012 in News By Matthew Edwards

CHILDREN made a splash at Coate Water over the weekend.

An interactive splash park for children, with water-spitting dragons and flowers, opened at Coate Water Country Park on Saturday. Despite the changeable weather youngsters still put on their swimming costumes to splash around.

The opening of the £120,000 park was delayed from the planned Easter date because of drought restrictions. Now these have been lifted, the splash park – which has been built on the site of the former paddling pool at Coate – is ready to go and families flocked to the park on Saturday.

Claire Jordan, from Malmesbury, was there with daughters Olivia, three, and Eleanor, eight, who loved the attraction after already going for a canoe trip on the lake.

Claire said: “I think it is great.

“We didn’t know it was here but it is a great attraction to have.

“I think it is better than a pool because it is cleaner and the children can be entertained by the various jets and sprays for hours.

“It is free which is also good and I can see it getting really busy when the weather is good.

“We will definitely be coming back here in the future.”

The park was also a hit with mum-of-one Fiona Mulhern who took five-year-old son Tom down for the day.

She said: “This is a great asset for the park and another reason to come here.

“We usually come here with the bikes at weekends but there is so much to do here now with the mini-golf and the railway as well.

“The fact that it is free as well is brilliant and I can see it being really popular during the school holidays.”

The centrepiece of the design is a dragon which fires water from its mouth and tail.

The feature also has giant flowers which spray water, and water jets which fire up from the base of the park to form tunnels.

For smaller children there is an area where more gentle sprays create mist which form rainbows in sunlight.

Councillor Fionuala Foley, Swindon Council cabinet member for StreetSmart, which includes responsibility for parks and play areas, said: “I’m pleased we can get the splash park up and running for the summer holidays.

“We were worried that the drought would prevent us from being able to open it at all this year.

“Now all we need is some decent weather.”

The feature, which will be free to use, has replaced the dilapidated paddling pool.

The splash park is part of a programme of work at Coate Water which began last year and is scheduled for completion in 2014.