Could an ice rink be coming to Newbury's Victoria Park?

Council reveals it has held discussions over £500,000 project as part of £1.3m makeover

AN ICE rink, a state-of-the-art water play feature and an 80-seater café may all come to Newbury’s Victoria Park as part of a £1.3m makeover.

The town council has set aside £720,000 in its 2016/17 budget for the café – which will be paid for by a “significant contribution” from Greenham Common Trust, Section 106 developer’s funds and public loans.

Interest payments will be covered by commercial businesses appointed to operate within the café.

Plans to build the café have been in the pipeline for some time – but the cost of building has escalated after the Environment Agency expressed con-cerns about the risk of flooding.

The town council is planning to demolish the old kiosk and boat store near the pond in the park and make way for a new building that will include a café, changing rooms, baby-changing facilities, boat store and a park warden’s office. The new building will be located in the same area as the existing kiosk and will include new public toilets

This week, the council appointed a contractor to build a ‘splashpad’ – a special water feature – in the park between the play area and pond.

It will operate between April and September and work on a timer, so that it can be turned off in the evening and set to come on in the morning.

The ‘splashpad’ will allow children to play among water jets on a rubberised surface and could be ready to use as early as April. The £85,000 cost will be paid for by West Berkshire Council and Greenham Common Trust.

The council has also held initial, informal discussions about the possibility of building an ice rink in the park – something that is likely to cost in the region of £500,000.

The council’s chief executive, Hugh Peacocke, said: “The ice rink is something we’d love to see happen. We think it would be a fantastic addition to the park.

“It would not just be a local attraction, but something I believe would be a national draw to Newbury. It is very early stages and would be fairly expensive, around £500,000.

“If we can get external funding it would be something we’d like to see eventually.

“I’m not going to put a timescale on it, but it would be a great feature, particularly alongside the Christmas village.”