We’re pleased to say the paddling pool at Runnymede Pleasure Grounds will be open between 11am-4pm from Friday 9 May 2025. If you look after young children, we hope this will be a fun extra reason to visit the pleasure grounds during the spring and summer seasons.
However, we’re sorry to say the old paddling pools at Victory Park, Chertsey Rec and Heathervale Recreation Ground will again not be in use this year.
Last year we carried out technical surveys on the pools, their drainage systems and underground pipes. The results showed that significant and expensive work would be required to repair them.
While we know families enjoyed these pools several years ago, maintenance costs have increased as the pools have got older.
We have to focus our limited spending on only the most essential projects. The costs required for the pools was extremely high compared to the number of people across the borough who would use them and how essential they are in comparison to other services.
The Council is doing what it can to support climate change and the environment as well. It’s got to be said that pumping thousands of gallons of water in to and out of the pools on a regular basis isn’t good use of natural resources, or money.
Our figures suggest that 13,000 gallons or 59,000 litres of water would be needed every day to fill the three pools.
The pools have to be emptied every day as they are in the open air. Animals and birds could defecate in them overnight, meaning diseases would spread through the water. Nobody wants their child to get sick because they’ve paddled in or swallowed foul water.
The pool at Runnymede Pleasure Grounds has equipment in place which chlorinates the water every day to keep it safe for use, so it doesn’t need to be filled and emptied regularly. This is similar to a swimming pool. However, it would be too expensive to install this equipment at the other pools.
We know this will disappoint a number of people, but we hope you can understand why we’ve had to reluctantly take the decision not to open the pools.
Please do make use of the pool at the Pleasure Grounds.
Many of our parks have play equipment in which we hope families enjoy making use of, including many new features which were installed last year.
We’ll also be running a range of activities during the school summer holidays, so follow us on Facebook and Instagram to see what’s going on.
We always look for ways to improve our website. Share your feedback on how we can improve the information or structure of this web page.
To get in touch about a service we provide, use our contact us form
Did you find this page useful?