VIDEO: Southwater Dinosaur Island launch date announced

Councillors Kate Rowbottom, Ian Howard, Claire Vickers and Jonathan Chowen are shown the latest progress on the Dinosaur Island site at Southwater Countryside Park by Countryside Officer Anna Chapman.

It is estimated that the play area will now be open for use by the end of May 2015 and an official launch opening is being planned for 11 July 2015.

‘Dinosaur Island’ is a brand new adventure play area for the Country Park, featuring special effects such as an active volcano, red hot lava flows, tar quagmire, dinosaur swamp and prehistoric jungle.

Children of all ages and abilities will be able to cross dinosaur bones and deadly swampland, swing through the jungle, climb the volcano, zip wire across lizard infested ditches and traverse aerial walkways along sheer slopes to look out over the Country Park lake.

Horsham District Council, working in conjunction with Southwater Parish Council and West Sussex County Council are also looking to improve car parking arrangements in and around the Country Park area. It is planned that parking improvements at Station Road and Worthing Road will be in place by end May 2015 to provide enhanced car parking capacity for the busy summer period. In the meantime, some access disruptions in the Park have unfortunately been necessary to complete building works, but it is aimed to re-open the temporarily closed paths for the Easter school holidays.

The whole of the former play area has now been closed off for safety reasons for the duration of the works, though the Country Park is open for business as usual.

Further details on the play area are available to view in the Visitor Centre and Café at the Country Park which are open seven days a week.

If you have any ideas on how the facilities at Southwater Country Park can be improved, please let us know at [email protected]

VIDEO: Dinosaur Island revealed for Southwater County Park