Go Ape Comes to Battersea Park Post Reply

[Annabel (admin)]

New treetop adventure course planned for Battersea Park
Exciting plans have been unveiled for a new family-friendly treetop adventure course in Battersea Park.

The new facility, which could open later this year subject to planning permission, would be run by Go Ape and be based in the park’s adventure playground. It would complement the £250,000 of modern play equipment that was unveiled there last summer.

The high wire course, which would incorporate some of the park’s taller trees, would offer families a thrilling and challenging two to three hour long treetop experience.

The course would incorporate state-of-the-art safety features and participants would be under close supervision by fully-trained members of staff. It would be the first visitor attraction of its kind to open in central London.

The council’s children’s services spokesman Cllr Kathy Tracey said: “This is a really thrilling proposal for a premium leisure attraction that would offer young people and their parents a really fun-packed day out that’s challenging and confidence building.”

Go Ape’s business development manager Ben Davies added: “Battersea Park is an iconic location with a great family atmosphere and we look forward to developing a high quality outdoors attraction for residents and visitors to the capital. We shall be consulting with park users, local residents and other interested parties ahead of a planning application.”
Go Ape estimate that the venture could provide up to 20 full time and part time jobs for local people. For more information visit

http://www.goape.co.uk

The free-to-use playground equipment in the park, which was installed last summer at a cost of £250,000, includes rope swings, chain ladders, aerial walkways, tube slides, scramble nets, zip wires and fireman's poles.

[supergirl]

This is fabulous news, thanks Annabel.

We ve done one with the kids (quite challenging in retrospect ) in october and they were scared but loved (thank goodness!) and want to do it again!

They will be thrilled when i tell them tomorrow! Thanks again Sx

[Mummyoftwo]

Wow that is exciting! My girls (aged 4 and 6 years) have done the one at Leeds Castle a few times now and absolutely love it. Confession; I couldn't go up with them.... too scared of heights!! Sent their lovely godparents and daddy up with them. Apart from being fun (apparently.. ) it is incredible to see the children's confidence blossom with each time they have gone round. And that has translated to being so much confident on the excellent equipment in Battersea Park. Well done Wandsworth Council - bring it on!!

[dangalf]

Your report seems to suggest this will be free to use? Are you sure? The information I have seen suggests it will be pay to use.

[Beketaten]

There will definitely be a charge, it's a commercial company.

[Camille]

Brilliant! Let's hope it happens (Dangalf...no way will it be free!) and without delay.

[Annabel (admin)]

Hi All,

There will be a cost for the Go Ape facility, the recently installed adventure park is free to use. Apologies if it's not clear

A x

[upseydaisy]

Hi All,
There are limited facilities which will be free. The Evening Standard had a write up about it last night 20th Jan. The costs are horrendous!
£24 for kids and £32 for adults! Somehow I think a number of people will have reservations about paying that kind of money if you have more than one child. Costs are ridiculous!

[tamara]

We've done Go Ape a few times in Hampshire and it's important to realise the other ones in the UK are not casual play spaces.

They're over two and a half hours, from arriving to leaving, with proper safety briefings/equipments and some pretty major structural work to build the areas themselves.

I'd think of it more like a trip Go Karting or paint balling as opposed to a casual pay and play.

Not saying its not expensive, it is, but it's a great time

[supergirl]

The face value is expensive but the value for money is great!

When will they be opening? Does anybody know how many trail level they would have?

[emmabarkerjones]

This is what I call good news! My little cousins will love it
Thank you Annabel!

[Bleu Widley]

Hi All,
There are limited facilities which will be free. The Evening Standard had a write up about it last night 20th Jan. The costs are horrendous!
£24 for kids and £32 for adults! Somehow I think a number of people will have reservations about paying that kind of money if you have more than one child. Costs are ridiculous!

I agree, It looks really fun but the price is a bit of a shock for me.

[eddiecatz]

Hi I am Maria, the owner of Eddie Catz playcentres and Mom of 2.

Sorry if I jump in here, but I feel that I need to point out that a business of this nature does have costs and although it may seem horrendous it is what needs to be charged to make the business viable. The company is run by entrepreneurs who are great guys and well respected in our industry. Yes, it is not inexpensive, but I paid £9.70 for my kids to sit through a (bad) 2 hour movie the other day and with popcorn, drinks parking and the lot it was almost £60!!

Running businesses that involve adventure play is expensive. Aside from insurance, maintenance and staffing there is everything that happens in the background that customers do not see. I say this as a business owner, but I am also the mother of 2 young teens. We have done the Go Ape experience and our kids loved it and I was delighted to get them to experience challenges beyond the padded play spaces of an Eddie Catz.

I am sure I will get some stick from these comments which really come from the heart, but the rising costs of running a business are out of control.

I look forward to seeing Go Ape open and see you there. Even if we can only afford a once and a while visit (and that includes me!) it's worth it.

Maria J

[papinian]

Go Ape is wonderful I am sure. I don't like to see public spaces taken over by commercial enterprises. On the other hand I can see that Wandsworth Council want to generate revenue to support the free public playgrounds.

The thing that makes me sad is that I am sure there will be parents at the public playground whose children will see Go Ape and ask to go on it and will have to say no because of the cost. Of course we can't shield our children from realising that other children's parents have more money / spend more money on them, and it's not a bad thing for children to realise that. But it is sad that Go Ape in Battersea Park will be a demonstration of our two tier society - with the rich in the trees and the rest below.

[Bleu Widley]

Hi I am Maria, the owner of Eddie Catz playcentres and Mom of 2.

Sorry if I jump in here, but I feel that I need to point out that a business of this nature does have costs and although it may seem horrendous it is what needs to be charged to make the business viable. The company is run by entrepreneurs who are great guys and well respected in our industry. Yes, it is not inexpensive, but I paid £9.70 for my kids to sit through a (bad) 2 hour movie the other day and with popcorn, drinks parking and the lot it was almost £60!!

Running businesses that involve adventure play is expensive. Aside from insurance, maintenance and staffing there is everything that happens in the background that customers do not see. I say this as a business owner, but I am also the mother of 2 young teens. We have done the Go Ape experience and our kids loved it and I was delighted to get them to experience challenges beyond the padded play spaces of an Eddie Catz.

I am sure I will get some stick from these comments which really come from the heart, but the rising costs of running a business are out of control.

I look forward to seeing Go Ape open and see you there. Even if we can only afford a once and a while visit (and that includes me!) it's worth it.

Maria J

Totally understand Maria. Thanks for your reply.

I'm still shocked at the pricing, I thought it was cheaper but i don't know much about it tbf.

But there's two sides to things and i'm currently on your side of things with my football project. I'd love to make it as cheap as possible but paying for pitch hire and insurance etc makes it so tough.

So i feel your pain lol.