Bucks country parks reopen to help visitors enjoy more outdoor activity

Buckinghamshire Council has today (13 May) reopened its four country parks in response to the latest Government coronavirus advice which now allows people to make more of the outdoors.

Langley Park, Black Park, Denham Country Park and Thorney Park in the south of the county are all back open for business allowing visitors to exercise more, take a walk, or simply enjoy a picnic in some of the most beautiful surroundings in Buckinghamshire.

Reopening the country parks has however meant introducing a number of restrictions to meet current social distancing requirements. All toilets, cafes, playgrounds and play areas in the parks have to remain closed along with the Go Ape facility at Black Park. Some other areas will also remain closed until new arrangements have been made to enable social distancing, including the Temple Gardens in Langley Park, the visitor centres and main office.

In addition, the charges to use the dedicated car parks remain in force, meaning that a ticket needs to be purchased from one of the machines or making sure existing parking season tickets are clearly displayed.

Buckinghamshire Council Cabinet Member for Sports and Leisure, Clive Harriss said this was another important measure to help residents as the country takes its first tentative steps to sensibly and safely emerge from the lockdown.

“In addition to our municipal parks, footpaths and rights of way which have all remained open during the pandemic, I’m delighted that, as the government has now relaxed restrictions on exercise and travel, we can now reopen around 800 acres of beautiful county park land to the public.

“Of course, we do need visitors to play their part by maintaining a two metre gap from anyone not in their household, keeping dogs on leads at all times and taking all litter home. With the toilets not currently open, there are no hand washing facilities, so we’d also ask visitors to bring their own hand gel or sanitiser as they would do when out and about anyway. We are looking at how we can resolve this issue in the longer term.”

Clive added, “To help us and to maintain the safety of others, please ensure you read all the relevant signage in the parks and leave extra gaps between cars when parking in the car parks. Height barriers are also in place at the car park entrances so please check the height of your vehicle, particularly if you have a roof mounted bike rack and bike attached.”

The full details of the parks and current restrictions are:

Black Park Country Park

Pay and display parking in operation

Car park height barrier in place – 2m height limit for vehicles.

There are no hand washing facilities on site

Toilets, cafes and play areas closed

Go Ape closed

Langley Park

Pay and display parking in operation

Car park height barrier in place – 1.8m height limit for vehicles

There are no hand washing facilities on site

Toilets, cafe and play area closed

Temple Gardens (the Rhododendron collection) closed

Denham Country Park

Pay and Display parking in operation

Car park height barrier in place – 2m height limit for vehicles

There are no hand washing facilities on site

Toilets, café and play area closed

Thorney Park

No on-site facilities or parking. Local access only

For further details on the reopening of country parks and all other service area changes, please visit www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/coronavirus/