A CHILDREN'S activity centre at Prospect Park with minigolf, archery, a rope course, and café was granted planning permission last night.
Reading Borough Council’s (RBC) Planning Applications committee approved the plan on Wednesday, September 8.
The activity centre will include:
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- A skytrail high ropes course
- Family minigolf with wheelchair access
- An outdoor enclosed education zone including an archery range, portable climbing wall and team building activities
- A café
- Multi-function indoor space for parties and meetings.
Councillor Karen Rowland, lead member for recreation at RBC, said the activity centre will make Prospect Park “a real destination for young people of all abilities” and “a much more exciting place to be”.
Other councillors added their praise, with councillor Jane Stanford-Beale saying the facility will be “fantastic” and would allow more people to access activities by bus rather than having to get in the car to go outside Reading.
Meanwhile, councillor John Ennis said park “the best in Reading” but “some of the stuff for young people is getting tired” and called the upgrade “really good”.
The Prospect Park pavilion is currently being used as a Covid testing station, with no date yet confirmed for the end of this use.
Councillor Jo Lovelock, planning applications committee chair, said this will need to be resolved, before the activity centre can be set up.
The plans from the council aim to address the lack of a significant outdoor activity centre in Reading, such as Wokingham’s Dinton Pastures or Bracknell’s Go Ape.
The number of car parking spaces at the park will increase from 80 to 101.
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Disused garages will be converted into ropes and a climbing wall, offices will become a café and classroom and open space to the front of the pavilion building would be converted into a 9-hole family mini golf course.
The yard space behind the pavilion will be used as an outdoor activity area including play equipment and also for company or team building days.
There will be activities catering for a range of physical abilities, as well as further developing established support services for vulnerable and disadvantaged young people and children.
Several changes have been made to the application since the initial plans were submitted, including moving the archery range away from an old oak tree, reducing the heigh of a fence around the pavilion and improvements to a zebra crossing in the park.
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