15 February (Part 1) - An update on Belvedere’s Splash Park
At the request of councillor Joe Ferreira, (Labour, Erith) Bexley’s Director of
Leisure, Arts and Tourism, Toni Ainge, reported to
last week’s People Scrutiny meeting on what the
council has been doing at the Splash Park, quite a lot it would seem.
Complete replacement would cost at least £350,000; modifications would be
cheaper but new options had been examined beyond the proposed closure.
On 6th November 2014 engineers were consulted and asked to comment on…
• Converting the system from filtration to fresh water supply (like the Danson Park facility).
• Upgrading the filtration units to modern standards.
• Improving the existing surface water drainage system which has caused
contamination.
The drains were inspected by CCTV and defects were confirmed and last week
another survey was to be conducted by council staff and their consultants and
other specialists and answers to the three principal questions will be presented
to council in March.
Funding has been pledged by a local business and the council can seek assistance
from external sources such as the London Marathon Trust - an agency identified
as being potentially helpful by Belvedere councillor Daniel Francis. Dependent
on the consultants’ report tenders may be obtained to assess the costs involved.
Cabinet member Alex Sawyer said that obviously the Splash Park could not be
operational in 2015, which would save the £20,000 operating costs, but there
would “absolutely not” be any move towards dismantling it and confirmed that he
“would be stupid” not to consider any revenue neutral option.