New leisure space for Colehill

Blocko, you're probably right that I shouldn't have tried to use humour to reply to how unfair I felt some of your criticism of the new open area was. At the time of writing it seemed very dull to cover your comments point by point, but here goes.

The space isn't even officially open yet, so to complain about lack of markings in the car park seems a bit premature. I'm sure there will be, but does it really matter?

We always brought our children up to love dogs and it seems a shame that any child's first lessons in life are to fear them. I'm sure they weren't american pit bulls and rottweilers running free on the day you visited, but more likely the odd floppy retriever or labrador. Personally I think it's a delight to see dogs allowed to run free in a brilliant open space such as this. And my kids always felt the same.

The railings around the very shallow lake are not high and not filled in. Firstly, I think it's every parent's responsibility to make sure their children can swim. Secondly, you did absolutely the right thing to keep your 4 and 5 year olds close to you when walking near the water. Surely this is a given and not be used as a criticism of the railing's height. And when the space is officially open - remember, it's not yet - I'm sure there will be some sort of life-saving equipment, though the water seems barely knee-height and any responsible parent should be watching out for their young children, as you were. It's not always the State's responsibilty.

Yes, it's unfortunate that you saw a warden relieving himself in a bush. In defence, I'd say that the wardens and workers on the site have done a terrific job, in particularly harsh weather recently and the alternative would be get in the car, drive to the public loo in the Quarterjack, park, do what he needs to do and drive back. Shock horror that he did the easier alternative, but I'm sure he did it discretely.

Finally when I visited there were plenty of dog waste bins and as we all know it's the responsibility of the owners to look after that aspect of things.

I'm sorry you were so disappointed and upset by this new open space. I think it was absolutely terrific and am sure it'll be even better by the time it's finished.

Well 'Tigsthecat', my comments were a simple observation yet yours are a heartless mocking of them. I sincerely hope that none of those who you hold dearest to yourself are ever attacked by a dog or drown.

Totally agree. No armed response unit, no emergency helipad, mud on some of the paths, a number of blackbirds just hanging round in an intimidating fashion, and I was there for at least an hour without receiving any sort of Health and Safety update. We were all petrified and couldn't wait to get back onto tarmac and pavements.

I can honestly say that after my first visit to BYTHEWAY today with my 4 and 5 year old daughters I have been left feeling disgusted and upset. I have read so many promising things in the local press about the space that I thought a family walk on Mothering Sunday would be an ideal first visit. We arrived to find plenty of space in the tarmac car park, but no marked spaces. We then all started on the walk around the area. My first observation was that there were so many dog walkers. I had read that fences were being installed to keep dogs safe within the site, but there were none present. In fact I witnessed a number of dogs walking back to their owners cars unsupervised. We headed across towards the lake but were literally dodging dogs who were running around the paths off of their leads. My daughters were terrified by a number of these encounters so we were left with no option than to keep our daughters very close to us. At the lake I was horrified to see how low the wooden railings were. Any small child could easily fall over (or under) the railings and into the water. There were no buoyancy aids, life rings, poles or throw lines to be seen. We really were not enjoying our first visit in the slightest as it seemed that the space was a glorified dog walking field so we headed back to the car park only to find one of the countryside wardens urinating in a bush in plain view of our vehicle. Things couldn't get much worse I thought......that was until I saw a dog owner letting his dog foul next to the path and walk away. I then noticed that there were no dog foul bins or any other bins for that matter.
I hope to see a marked improvement by the official opening and to see it be a true community space it promised to be.