A NEW water park built on Mundy Playing Fields in Thornbury has been officially opened.

Built as a replacement for the paddling pool that was previously on the same site the new splash pad has been built at a cost of just under £120,000.

Of that, £77,000 was paid for through a grant from South Gloucestershire Council’s New Homes Bonus with the remaining amount paid for by Thornbury Town Council.

The splash pad was opened on Tuesday, September 9 and some residents have said that they are disappointed with the new feature.

The new water park was chosen by a vote following a week-long consultation, carried out in February, which showed a 3 to 1 split in favour of the new splash pad rather than renovating the paddling pool with 286 people voting for the splash pad and 94 voting to restore the paddling pool.

Thornbury Town Council groundsman Paul Le Riche was at the opening and was pleased with the finished splash pad.

“We had problems in the past with the paddling pool, people would throw glass and stones in to it so we would have to completely drain the pool and clean it out before refilling it.

“That would take about five to seven days to do whereas cleaning the splash pad would take as long as it takes to sweep it.

“The splash pad also uses less energy and water than the paddling pool as we can recycle the water that goes through the splash pad for things like watering flowers.”

The paddling pool would usually be open from the end of May until the school term starts again in early September, but the splash pad will be available for much longer throughout the year, depending on the weather.

Lola Harrison had brought her three-year-old son from Uley to use the new splash pad, she said:

“My husband grew up in Thornbury so we’ve always enjoyed using the paddling pool that used to be here.

“There’s nothing like this in the area, except for Weston-super-Mare so we had to come down and try it out now that it’s open.”

The splash pad is operated through three pads which when pressed will start a sequence on which the individual features run; once a sequence has finished one of the pads will need to be pressed again to restart it.

Mayor of Thornbury Guy Rawlinson cut the ribbon at the splash pad’s official opening.