There will be no splashing at the Ryde Splash Park this Summer with the once-popular, free attraction to remain closed for yet another season.
It was back in May 2022 that Waterside Community Trust, which ran the Isaac Hayward Paddling Pool and Water Play Area, gave notice on its tenure due to the spiralling costs of keeping the park operational.
The park normally opens between May and September but last year – 1 of the hottest on record – it was closed for the entire Summer with a similar fate expected this year, leaving many parents upset and angry.
The splash park was created in the early 2000s in memory of 5-year-old Isaac Hayward. Waterside Pool took over the running of the park in 2014, with the Waterside Community Trust then becoming responsible for it when the Trust was formed in 2017.
As a result of the closure, the park has fallen into a state of disrepair with moss and grass growing on the rubber floors whilst the paint on the fence and perimeter has also started flaking.
With the weather set to remain hot for the foreseeable future and the lack of similar facilities on the Island, the continued closure is a real blow for local families – especially at a time of a cost of living crisis.
It is unclear as to what exactly will become of the splash park.
A spokesperson from the Isle of Wight Council has said:
“The Local Authority, Ryde Town Council and members of the community users forum recently met to discuss the facility.
“Unfortunately, the splash park remains in a poor and unsafe condition which means it will not be open this summer. The Isle of Council and Ryde Town Council will continue to liaise with the community to seek options for moving the site forward in the future.”
So they’ve done nowt in a year then.
Why can Ryde town council see if there is a group of parents and grandparents who would run a group to get funding to fix it and open it?
A poor and unsafe condition because our council do the square route of f**k all preventative maintenance on anything on our island.
They run everything into the ground until it’s uneconomical to repair.
This is very sad, to see this once thriving area including the canoe lake fall into disrepair and neglect. The Island is steadily falling into a total state of neglect, I am fully aware that much of the UK is in decline for many reasons that include Austerity, Covid and the Russian invasion. However it does appear from economic reports the UK will suffer for longer and fall behind many other world economies and that is largely down to Government mismanagement and that includes Brexit.
The underlying question has to be just when will decline slow and upturn start? Any upturn at present seems a distant prospect and further decline seems an odds on certainty.
Miles of safe beach. Get the over subsidised‘muvvers’ to get their eyes away from a screen and look out for their state subsidised kids.
Fate instead of fete…
The council is so cruel and greedy they deprive families of facilities and could not care less
looking at company house records for November 2017 there was a balance of £138,262, November 2018 balance £0.00p, where did it all go and whose sticky fingers are dirty?
And their fault it has, fallen into disrepair….. After all the money wasted on that farce of a Ryde interchange which nobody is happy with apart from Island Roads and their planning office in France! The money could have gone on giving families and children of all ages “free” activity.. Oh wait our Council and Ryde Council don’t like that four letter word “free”! What happened to Ryde Councillor who was all fired up to “get it open whatever”? Brown envelope for kerping quiet!? Isaccs family must be devastated.
they find money for pride though – a pointless and self serving, look at me shoving my self in your face parade through town.
Use your thousands a year in tax credits and child allowance to fund what YOU bring into the world.
We pay that for you, so you ‘expect’ your cake and eat it too.
Yes so cruel, giving those who can’t be bothered to use contraception when in poverty themselves a rent and council tax free property in which to fill the bedrooms to capacity, with every clone paid for, more if with a disability or syndrome.
So cruel providing the parent, or rarely parents with a easy lifestyle of working at most 20 hours to then claim thousands in child tax credits, working tax credits, ( or now universal credit) &child allowance.
So cruel then providing free prescriptions and dental treatment, free school meals, uniforms, transport whilst the parent(s) lazy around on the beach, or get drunk or stoned in their free property.
The council should be done for this crime, but NOT to the parents, to us taxpayers
The council is pathetic & a waste of space
Thats because the island has been turned into a retirement home. Younger slowly moving off and the older generation moving on. I cant wait to get all my kids off this dying rock
Move then!
You think “younger” brains with no real life experience can do better?
You will be comforted to know though that the council meets all its Whitehall diversity targets and commitments and continues to spend vast sums of taxpayers money on fighting ‘climate change’, so while the island facilities and services are abandoned due to cost and the stuff you can see around you is disintegrating, just remember it’s all in a good cause because they are busy fighting something you can’t actually see to meet targets that people you never voted for have set – all of which coincidentally means they all get far richer and more powerful whilst sadly you just get less and less, but it’s for the planet so just grin and bear it folks
It’s not going to end well, you mark my words. There’ll be an increase in graffiti, drug use and crime. The boating lake will become a no go area!
Too much money already spent on new bus lane area. Are all the Councillors on the Island suffering with long covid and memory fog?