Cost of dog park could rise to over £40,000 – before any new equipment is bought!

MELKSHAM’s dog park could cost a further £21,000 to remove concrete and rubber flooring, before any equipment can be replaced, it was revealed in a Melksham Town Council meeting last week. 

Known by users as the town’s ‘Dog Bark’, the installation last October of dog agility equipment, which cost £18,000, came under fire as members of the public said it was unsafe. Questions were asked of the town council as to whether the correct dog agility equipment had been purchased and whether safety advice was sought. At a town council meeting, the town clerk assured the public and councillors that this was the case.   

However, when Melksham News contacted the Kennel Club, with photographs of the equipment, they said they would be “deeply concerned about the safety of the equipment.”  Following the news article, the dog park was closed and the equipment removed. The dog park is now open for dog walkers, without the agility equipment. 

At last week’s asset and amenities meeting, the town council said that advice had been taken from a local dog agility expert, Andrew Bloomfield. He says that most of the previously-brought dog agility equipment will not be able to be reused and the concrete and rubber-surfaced area, which was laid when the area was previously a children’s play park, should be removed.  

The town council’s head of amenities, Dave Elms said, “[Apart from the A-frame and walkway] everything else is looking unusable at the moment. We have discussed and come up with a few designs for very, very small jumps that can be used by any dog, that are a matter of inches high and a small maze and a mound of tyres which are secured. Before we do anything else, we have been told we should remove the hard-standing rubber matting of the play area that was in there before.”  

He said that added to the cost of the equipment which has already been spent, this would bring the cost of the project to nearly £40,000, due to the ‘extra bodies’ needed onsite to ensure it is safe. 

Cllr Jon Hubbard proposed that the council bring back the original plans for the area, which were set out in the King George V Park masterplan, so officers can prepare a ‘proper, in-depth’ report about what was first proposed for the area.  

Cllr Hubbard said the original plans for the park highlighted the area of the current Dog Bark as ‘not safe for play equipment’ due to flooding risks. He said, “I think we need to go back to the drawing board and look at this because we are at risk of spending as much money again, and still being no further forward in terms of provision and really demonstrate that, before we rush into these five- figure sum exercises.” 

Cllr Hubbard also asked that the council look into ways to recoup from the company some of the £18,000 already spent on equipment, which has now been removed. He said, “That is an awful lot of public money there that has been wasted.” However, the company the equipment was procured from, Mant Leisure, is now in liquidation. 

Councillors agreed that rather than improving the dog park’s surface and spending funds to install safer equipment, they would look at the original landscape architect’s plans for the dog park, at the next asset management and amenities meeting in April.  

When asked, councillors said they were open to putting equipment back into the area, but they wanted to find the best long-term solution that is cost-effective for the taxpayer.