Planning approval for new inflatable floating play area at Center Parcs
Photo: Megan Rose Kavanagh (7) jumps in the outdoor pool in Ireland’s newest and largest waterpark, the Subtropical Swimming Paradise, at the official launch of Center Parcs Longford Forest last July. Photo: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland.
Approaching its first anniversary of opening, and Center Parcs is already looking to the future by adding to their already impressive facilities at the Longford Forest holiday village, close to Ballymahon.
Planners in Longford County Council recently cleared the way for a new inflatable floating play area on the existing lake in the centre of the resort, to include water slides, inflatable platforms, inflatable logs, and climbing frames.
The second element, adjacent to this, is a “prefab changing facility” to be constructed in an “unused area beside the apartment building,” on-site according to the planning documents, which will include showers and toilets.
The new development is referred to as an “aqua park” in the planning application documents which got the green light from Longford County Council on July 10 last, subject to compliance with three separate planning conditions.
At end of July last year, the €233 million holiday resort first opened for business boasting hundreds of self-catering lodges set in 400 acres of woodland in Newcastle Wood to cater for over 2,500 guests during each short break.
The forest holiday village, which employs hundreds of local staff, recently reopened on July 13 for guests for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdown.
However, it was without the resort's biggest attraction, the Subtropical Swimming Paradise, Ireland’s largest indoor water park heated at over 29 degrees all year round, which only opens for guests from Monday, July 27 next with new safety procedures in place.
On the same day, the Aqua Sana Spa on-site will also open its doors for anyone staying at the resort in Newcastle Wood, near Ballymahon.
The village already offers more than 100 activities for young and old, and this plan for a new inflatable play area will add to that impressive list.