Cantley Park Cafe Opens
The refurbishment at Cantley Park reached a major milestone on Friday 3 September 2021 as the new café was officially opened by Wokingham Borough Mayor, Cllr Keith Baker, during a ribbon cutting ceremony.
The ambitious project features a brand new café (which were once changing rooms) and a refurbished pavilion and a 3G sports pitch. The new and refurbished facilities at Cantley Park will offer excellent opportunities to residents to socialise and participate in sporting events.
Residents had the opportunity to explore the new café and facilities, including a new outdoor seating area, and enjoyed half price discount on cake and hot and cold beverages.
Executive member for environment and leisure Cllr Parry Batth said: “I am delighted to welcome residents to the official opening of the Cantley Park Café. The new café is perfect for residents visiting Cantley Park, socialising whilst dog walking, and serves as a social hub to meet up with friends. There’s plenty of food and beverage options available to appeal to everyone. The refurbishment at Cantley Park will maximise opportunities for physical and social activities, whilst supporting residents to lead happy, healthy lives.”
Cantley Park Café will serve hot and cold drinks, cake, pastries, hot and cold sandwiches, and ice creams. With both indoor and outdoor seating available, residents can choose to dine in, outside or takeaway. The car park will have an additional 39 spaces for residents to use when visiting Cantley Park, bringing the total to 164 including four larger spaces to accommodate minibuses.
Arts and craft workshops at the Cantley Park Cafe
There will be a series of workshops held above the café for arts and crafts enthusiasts during September and October.
Crochet workshops will be held at 9am to 12pm on Thursday 16, 23 and 30 September, and 7 October. Beginners can learn how to create basic stitches, chaining, working in rows, trebles, slip stitches, and how to crochet a baby’s hat. Whilst improvers will learn how to crochet a poppy with a leaf or a double-petaled flower brooch, a string shopping bag, mosaic crochet and a front post, back pose trebles leading to cable stitches. All yarn and patterns are included.
The printmaking workshop will take place at 9.30am to 12.30pm on Thursday 14 October. Residents can learn how to build skills and confidence in mono-printing, linocuts, and lithography, and create a beautiful set of prints to take home. All materials are provided.
Tickets cost £33.00 per workshop, with a discounted ticket price for the over 60’s at £30.80 per workshop. More arts and crafts workshops are planned, including Christmas wreath making on Thursday 2, 9, 16 and 23 December. For more information on upcoming workshops, visit the Eventbrite booking website.
Cantley’s 3G sports pitch
Earlier in the week, a brand new, state-of-the-art 3G sports pitch with floodlights was launched to members of the public at Cantley Park. The borough council has been successful in bidding for a £616,619 grant from the Premier League, The FA, and the Government’s Football Foundation for the artificial pitch, new changing facilities and viewing balcony. The council worked in partnership with the Berks and Bucks FA to secure the Football Foundation funding.
In recent years, Wokingham has seen a rise in the number of football teams and there are currently some 534 active teams across the borough. Growing demand and participation means more training facilities are required locally.
To meet this demand, an additional nine 3G pitches are needed for those local teams still travelling outside of the borough to use football pitches and winter training facilities. Cantley Park would be the seventh 3G pitch built in the borough.
The council has invested more than £1.6million to enhance residents’ facilities at Cantley Park, bringing significant benefits to the park’s large number of users including those who use the park for sport and relaxation as well as individuals and families. The development of Cantley Park’s café, pavilion, 3G sports pitch and play area supports the council’s community vision, making Wokingham a great place to live, learn, work and grow.
Cantley’s play area refurbishment
Refurbishment works to Cantley Park’s play area has also commenced. Funded by a £450,000 developer contribution, the new play area will replace the existing equipment near to the tennis courts, whilst complementing the existing sport and leisure facilities. The new play area has been designed to appeal to a wide age range, including teenagers and young children, plus it will be inclusive with wheelchair accessible equipment. The play area will also feature Yalp interactive equipment which is designed to make playing outside as addictive as gaming but without the screentime. It is expected the play area revamp will be completed in October 2021.
Cantley Park Cafe Information
More information on Cantley Park Café can be found here
