Buccaneer Bay play park, Dartford, under fire from parents due to maintenance issues and slippery algae

A popular £1.2 million play park is set to get dedicated wardens after complaints about maintenance problems, four months after opening.

One mum says she has stopped taking her 18-month-old daughter to the splashpark at the pirate-themed Buccaneer Bay in Central Park, Dartford because of the safety risk caused by a build-up of algae.

Sophie, 26, said: “We went to the park on Thursday, June 22 at around midday and within a week the algae buildup has really got quite bad which causes you to slip around.

“I won't be taking my little one into the splashpark until its cleared but we will still enjoy the rest of the park.

“My little girl adores the park and it is much more fun and age inclusive now.

“I would love to keep taking her but it's not nice to have the kiddos splashing around in it.”

The stay-at-home mum posted her query about the cleaning of the park on social media.

Another park user commented: “It was so dangerous before it was redone, my son slipped and bit through his lip then and it doesn't look any better now.”

Another said the toilets were “always disgusting.”

Cllr Jeremy Kite (Con) of Dartford Borough Council has said maintenance will be stepped up to resolve the issues.

He said: “I made a point of visiting the park on July 1 and can certainly see the issue.

“I've reported everything to our team and asked for the issue to be resolved and for a report to come back to me.

“Since Buccaneer Bay opened it's understandably been incredibly busy, which is a great testament to its design and popularity with children, but does mean we want to look at some issues related to Central Park.

“As a result, we're recruiting dedicated wardens to the park who will supplement the existing touring inspections and we've also started working work on a redesign of the toilets.

“It's a pity to have to do that in some ways, because the toilets at the cafe were fitted out to a high standard.

“We have to face facts and accept that the volumes of people now using them has soared and sadly, a very small number of users do manage to treat them rather badly.

“We're looking at a suitable redesign to make them more resistant to misuse and built of stronger stuff.”

Buccaneer play park opened on March 13, but was vandalised on its launch weekend.

Its lighthouse attraction was damaged with graffiti sprayed over it by yobs.

Work started on the ambitious scheme on November 14 last year, when the original play area was closed.

The park covers two-and-a-half acres with an enclosed space for families and a picnic area making it among the biggest of its kind in the UK.