County council in talks over future of education centre

Parents’ concern about loss of services at reservoir

Kent County Council has confirmed it is in discussions with the leisure operators at Bewl Water over the possible takeover of the county’s outdoor education centre at the reservoir, near Lamberhurst.

The Bewl Water Outdoor Centre is one of four locations run by KCC as Adventure Kent, offering challenging outdoor activities to schools, colleges and youth groups.

The cabinet member for community services, Cllr Michael Hill (Con), said: “Our officers have been working with the new owners of Bewl Water, Markerstudy, over the past few months to explore the best way of continuing and improving outdoor education facilities for young people. This has not been a costsaving measure on the part of the county council, rather a driving imperative to protect these important services.”

Cllr Hill said: “A number of options are being considered and no decision of any kind has been made. Whatever we finally decide to do, it will absolutely be for the best interest for the public in general, and in particular the young people of Kent.”

That has been disputed by parents of some of the young users of the centre.

One mother, who asked not to be named, said: “Sailing is often seen as an elite sport, but the centre has made it available to all – my children have all learned to sail there, and there have been specialist programmes for the disabled and for underprivileged children from inner cities.

“Can we expect a commercial business to provide the same type of service in future?”

Adventure Kent’s other sites are the Swattenden Centre in Cranbrook, the Kearsney Campsite near Dover, and the Kent Mountain Centre in Caernarfon, Wales.

The Markerstudy group started in insurance, but its leisure branch now runs the Salomens Estate, the Next Dimension Gymnastic Academy and The Warwick Park Hotel, all in Tunbridge Wells, and One Media, which includes The Times of Tunbridge Wells.

Parents accused the county council of progressing the sale “under the radar” without consulting users.

The Bewl Water centre includes a 36-bed accommodation block built with an £850,000 Big Lottery Fund grant in 2004.

KCC said it expected to make a decision on the centre’s future “within the next few weeks”.