Spring is arriving at Fenland Dog Park; days are getting longer, the sun has more strength and the grass is growing, but the paddock is still quite wet in places!
February was a record-breaking month, but not in a good way!ย The Met Office who monitors the UKโs weather and provide a forecasting service confirmed what we all knew โ it has been very wet!ย Winter rainfall has been the wettest for over 200 years; over the three winter months we measured 296mm (11.6โ), about half our annual rainfall, and our local area had three times its usual February rainfall, as shown on the map below.
Bookings at Fenland Dog Park have understandably been down recently, with areas of the 4 acre paddock being under water.ย Luckily the size of the paddock and the hardstanding at the entrance allowed some areas to be above water for you and your dogs to enjoy!ย Many of you have shared your pictures of your dogโs having fun in the puddles โ thank you very much and they are great to see.
As day length has been increasing, we have been opening up more available booking hours on our website, www.fenlanddogpark.co.uk.ย At the end of January we opened up the 4pm booking slot, and at the end of February we opened up the 5pm booking slot.ย With the day length continuing to extend, and with the clocks springing forward +1 hour on Easter Sunday, then we are pleased to say that full visiting booking hours of 8am until 6pm (to leave the paddock by 6.50pm) will be also be available from Easter weekend.
Last month we asked you again for feedback, in preparation for our one-year review with the council and planning permission.ย Thank you for all your comments, they have been taken on board, and acted upon where we can.ย The two main themes of feedback were how wet the dog park was in certain areas, and if we could further encourage people to pick up after their dogs to enable the paddock to be enjoyed by all.ย We canโt do much about the weather, but if conditions allow in the summer we will try and pull slots in the ground (mole draining with a tractor) to aid future drainage.ย We have also put up some more signs to encourage customers to pick up after their dogs, and we regularly fill up the poo bag dispensers in case people forget to bring their own.
During the last three months we have had over 100 new customers use Fenland Dog Park, now taking us to over 500 individual customers visiting the paddock, which is fantastic.ย We have also had 22 five-star reviews on Facebook with some lovely comments โ thank you for these and we will continue to look after the paddock for you and your dogs to enjoy.
Wishing you all a Happy Easter, and fingers crossed for some dry and warm spring weather!
