Meadowhall: Water park, beach and rides could open at shopping centre over 2023 summer holidays

Plans to transform Meadowhall’s orange car park, creating an aqua splash zone with inflatables and pools, rollercoaster rides and a beach area with 60 tonnes of sand, were given the go-ahead last year by Sheffield Council.

The terms of the planning permission stated that it could only operate during summer 2023, between July 1 and September 22, including the time taken for setting up and ‘decomissioning’ the attraction, which could open to the public for a maximum of 45 days between those dates.

Meadowhall has yet to announce whether the event is going ahead as planned this summer. When asked by The Star what was happening with the proposed attraction, a spokesperson for the shopping centre would only say that ‘plans for activity at the centre over the summer are still in progress’.

The ‘Love Summer’ attraction near the Oasis Food Court would run throughout the school holidays, according to the plans submitted last year, attracting up to 5,000 visitors a day at peak times. Operated by Crow Events, it would also include daily entertainment and a dining area with a bar serving cocktails.

Meadowhall had applied for the event to run during summer 2022, from July 22 to September 4, but the plans were not approved until September 2022 for the following year.

The successful planning application stated that parents would be able to relax and shop ‘in the knowledge that their children can play in a self-contained, safe and clean environment’. Access to the beach area and entertainment would cost £2.50, according to the proposals, with tokens for the rides priced £1, and the aqua splash attraction costing £5 for two hours. Whether those prices would remain the same given the soaring inflation in the nine months since the plans got the green light is unknown.

The attraction would run from midday to 9pm each day, the application stated, and there would be lilos, sun loungers, beach volleyball, and colourful pagodas and beach huts. The application described how the car park in question had hosted numerous events previously, including an annual Christmas concert, a temporary ice rink and a supercar display.

A licensing application for a ‘summer event’ in Meadowhall’s orange car park, including live and recorded music and the supply of alcohol, was submitted in March this year by a Balraj Singh Johal. It lists the opening hours for this event as being from 11am to 9.30pm each day, seven days a week.

Meadowhall had applied for the attraction to be staged annually for five years but the terms of the approval stated that for this to happen information would have to be submitted to National Highways about the impact of the inaugural event on traffic along the M1.

The planned aqua park and beach appeared to have the public’s backing, with two people commenting in support of the application and no objections. One person called it a ‘great idea’ and another told how they ‘look forward’ to it happening.