 Cantley Park play area opens Friday
Cantley Park's major new play area with state-of-the-art interactive equipment will be open this Friday (18 March)!
The play area has been designed in partnership with the Council by Jupiter Play, an award-winning British supplier, to appeal to children of all ages, including teenagers, and is inclusive with wheelchair-accessible equipment. The equipment is laid out in zones for different age groups, allowing all ages to use the interactives and play together with their families.
The play area also features cutting-edge interactive kit, manufactured by Yalp, which aims to make playing outside as compelling as video games – but without the screen time. This includes an interactive DJ booth, dance arch, play pillars and games wall.
Find out more via our news site - we look forward to seeing you there!
 Clever chefs
We are so excited to welcome, Cleverchefs, to Dinton Pastures Country Park!
The multi award winning caterer will be injecting some flavour and passion into the menus across the park, whilst keeping some fan favourites. You can see the new menus on Cleverchefs Dinton cafes webpage now!
What's new
The Dragonfly Café, will be operating under the new name ‘The Coffee House’. The café will sell Cleverchef’s own blend of coffee, which is hand roasted in the UK by master roasters and gives a percentage of its profits to a children’s charity. The site will be offering a range of breakfasts to eat in or takeaway, alongside a lunch menu filled with dishes such as cajun chicken shawarma and woodfired pizzas.
The café at Dinton Activity Centre, will be given a new name of ‘Coffee Deck’. The Coffee Deck will feature a selection of gourmet toasties, sharing plates and smoothies.
The Riverside Kiosk near the children’s play area will be renamed the ‘Coffee Pod’ and will provide visitors with express coffees, ice creams and a range of snacks.
Visitors won’t have to wait long, as Cleverchefs will be opening the coffee deck at Dinton Activity Centre this Thursday (17 March), with the other two food and drink facilities at the park will opening from 4 April.
 Black Swan Lake improvements
The countryside service has been putting together a programme of works to improve access at Dinton Pastures Country Park. The original footpath network around Black Swan Lake was made up of hogging (a stone/sand/clay mix) that was laid down in the early 1980`s. Over the years, this has been repaired and upgraded with road planings on an ad-hoc basis when issues have arisen, or where paths have begun to deteriorate.
However, because of the age and high level of wear, a new tarmac path with a bonded gravel top-dressing has been approved on the circular route around Black Swan Lake (the large boating lake), which is linked to the three main car parks and the activity centre.
The works are proposed to be carried out in two stages:
Stage 1 - Groundwork work will start on 21 March and will take approx. 3 weeks to complete, so we will have a new tarmac path in place before the Easter holidays.
Stage 2 – Tarmacking is weather-dependent (since warmer conditions will be needed to tar and gravel the tarmac surface), and will be carried out between the end of the Easter holidays and before the May bank holidays, and is expected to take approximately 5 days.
Please be aware that the construction works will result in disruption during the installation periods above. The works have been split into 4 phases, to allow some areas of the Black Swan circular path to remain open while others are being worked on. Work will be done Monday to Friday, but some closures may remain at weekends.
Thank you for your patience whilst we improve our much loved country park. Find out more via Dinton Pastures Facebook page.
 Nature park spotlight: Hazebrouck Meadows
Running parallel to both Biggs Lane and Commonfield Lane, Hazebrouck Meadows is a hidden gem in the heart of Arborfield’s thriving community.
About 2.3km of dedicated paths loop through this nature park, making it popular with both dog walkers and runners, and the landscape comprises a mixture of meadows and wooded areas.
The site is laid out to encourage wildlife, with wildflower meadows, wildlife ponds, hibernation areas and a barn for bats to roost. For those prepared to scale the hill, prepare yourself for breath-taking panoramic views of the local neighbourhood.
Eagle-eyed visitors may notice that the stream running through it has an orange tinge, which is perfectly natural and a result of its high iron content, similar to that at our Rook's Nest Wood country park off Barkham Ride.
Hazebrouck Meadows is also linked to the 40-hectare California Country Park at Finchampstead, with its lake, footpaths, café, destination play park and paddling pool, the last of which opens seasonally.
Access is via the California Way, one of our greenways - a network of traffic-free routes that we're building to connect our major developments with each other and places of interest across the borough.
Our nature parks cover some 120 hectares in total - about the size of 170 football pitches.
 Open air cinema is back
Gocinemas fantastic outdoor cinema returns for its sixth year at Dinton Pastures Country Park with a special event celebrating the Stone Roses on Saturday 21 May (6pm to 11pm).
The event brings together the best of indie music and movies, starting with a live DJ set from Indie legend Darren Thomas and finishing with a screening of the critically acclaimed Stone Roses musical documentary 'Made of Stone'.
There will also be a top selection of premium street food including the specially designed 'Roses Bear Burger' compliments of local favourites Bears Burgers & Chicken and The Rollin' Inn Mobile Bar, which will be offering a range of drinks, including cocktails.
In order to create the perfect intimate party vibe the number of tickets available will be limited and are already selling out fast so be sure to buy yours soon.
Tickets cost £10 and can be bought from the Gocinemas website.
And if you can't make this first screening then there will be plenty of time to enjoy open air cinema at Dinton Pastures throughout the summer with a great lineup of films during July and August including the Greatest Showman, Bridget Jones's Diary, West Side Story and a fabulous double bill of Clueless and Legally Blonde.
You can see the full line up of films and buy tickets on the Gocinemas website.
 Newsletter schedule change
There will be a change to the countryside newsletter schedules due to pre-election period covering 28 March to 4 May. During the pre-election period, there are specific restrictions on local authority communications. During this time we will be sending you countryside updates once every four weeks.
The next addition will be due 12 April and the usual fortnightly schedule will resume 10 May.
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