SWINDON'S country parks will be given a new lease of life.

Work will begin on cleaning the diving board and creating a cafe and restaurant at Coate Water, while the play area at Lydiard Park will be given a facelift.

The council approved a four-year plan for its parks on Wednesday. It will spend £50,000 on the work, with more than half of that invested at Coate and Lydiard.

Swindonians will be asked what they want to see at both places, as well as Stanton Park, Mouldon Hill, Shaw Forest and Barbury Castle.

Councillor Dale Heenan, the cabinet member in charge of culture and heritage said: "We love our parks, and Covid has shown that they are more important than ever.

“After Christmas, residents will be asked about what improvements they would like to see in each country park – whether this involves footpaths, signage, play areas, BBQ areas, toilets, pedalos on the lakes, any other ideas someone may have.

“In fact, I have already received interest from a resident asking for disc golf course to be set up in one of our parks – a bit like a golf course but you throw a Frisbee into a basket instead of hitting a ball into a hole. It’s great idea, and I could see this happening at Lydiard or at Moulden.

"We have to manage expectations of residents, but I want to see these ideas sent in.

“The council cannot do everything itself, so I want individuals, community groups and businesses to proactively come forward. If you'd like to run a disc golf club at Lydiard, the new Coate lakeside restaurant or anything new, please say. "

Coun Heenan was given the go ahead to work up a plan to improve the parks, which will include a four-week consultation next spring to identify what people living in the town would want to see.

The cabinet agreed to allocate a budget of £50,000 for the work.

It was agreed that parking fees at both Coate Water and Lydiard Park will be ringfenced for improvements at each park – £28,000 was allocated to improving the Lydiard play area, and work will begin on cleaning the diving board at Coate and preliminary work started on creating a lakeside restaurant and café.

Labour group leader Jim Grant asked why three significant decisions had been made on changes to Coate Water before the consultation had even started.

Coun Heenan said: “The importance of the parks is such that we want to get on with it. The idea of a lakeside café and restaurant has been around for at least 10 years since I have been a councillor. It would be a terrible shame if the opportunity were missed through delay.

“We can get on with the preparatory work and then people of Swindon will have the final say through the consultation.”

Coun Grant noted the report called the parks council-owned and asked whether Coun Heenan could guarantee they would still be in public hands in four years’ time.

Coun Heenan said there were no plans to change the status of the country parks.