Weekly Round-Up from the Director of Place

30 January 2026

Hi everyone,

I’m on end-of-week duty this Friday, and as Director of Place I wanted to update you on some of the important things happening in this area.

We are currently going through a review of the facilities we offer at our Country Parks.

With much improved public conveniences having recently being opened in Cosmeston, we hope that visitors will continue to see the ongoing improvements we are making to the parks. 

Looking forward to the rest of 2026, if recommendations are approved by Cabinet on Thursday, the lakes at Cosmeston and the immediate surrounding land will undergo a year of environmental assessment to establish something called an ecological baseline.

That captures an area's existing biodiversity, species distribution, and habitat condition and serves as a reference point from which to measure environmental changes.

It will be gathered without any new activities taking place on the water and will be used to assess the impact of any possible future activities.

This information will help inform decisions as we look to keep developing what the park has to offer while having regard to its important role as a local nature reserve.

Last July a water-based, inflatable obstacle course was trialled on a small section of Cosmeston lake for three months.

That was very successful in attracting new, younger visitors to the park and also generated significant income to boost the local economy.

While the attraction received a very high customer satisfaction rating, we know that it was also unpopular with a section of the public who were concerned at its possible environmental and ecological impact.

I’d like to thank all colleagues working at our country parks for their professionalism over the summer as I know their jobs were sometimes challenging.

Looking forward, we need to consider how the country parks can evolve, because, as public spaces, they need to be inclusive.

We believe they are for everyone but can offer different things for different people.

There is a good recent example of this inclusive approach on Barry Island where the toilets and changing rooms have been refurbished.

That work includes accessible features for disabled users and an increased number of outdoor showers to cater for a growing group people that enjoy sea swimming throughout the year.

In other areas, the Council has acquired the vacant former Wilko retail premises on Holton Road.

Moving forwards, we will be looking to work in partnership with local businesses and the wider community to develop what can be offered from this space.

This will be a lengthy process and so, in the meantime, we hope to be able to use the building to host activities designed to attract people into the town centre.

Finally, it’s great to see the former toilet block on Nells point taking shape as a new public house and restaurant, with the developer hoping to have the facilities open this summer.

This is another fantastic project supported by the Council which will improve the facilities for visitors to Barry Island.

I’d like to thank everyone for their efforts this week wherever you work in the Council and our Schools – your work is very much appreciated.

For those of you not in work, enjoy a relaxing couple of days off.

Have a good weekend.

Best wishes,

Marcus