The opening hours for the city’s popular splashpad will be cut to save the council money.

Councillors have approved the move to slash the number of days the splashpad at Gheluvelt Park in Worcester opens a year from 166 to 100 – saving around £26,000 year.

The splashpad has usually opened from the Easter school holidays until early September but the new money-saving proposals would see the water play area open from the summer school holidays until the beginning of the new school year.

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It was also agreed by Worcester City Council’s policy and resources committee that staff would end their ‘permanent presence’ at the splashpad with agency workers brought in at a cost of around £15,000 a year to deal with any issues while it is open.

Councillors were given several money-saving options for the city’s splashpad at the meeting in the Guildhall on Tuesday (September 5) including one that would see the splashpad completely, saving more than £80,000 a year.

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Councillors were also asked to consider cutting back opening days and times and only opening at weekends.

The city council’s officers recommend that councillors take up the option which would see the splashpad open from 11am to 4pm between May 24 and July 18 next year and 11am to 6pm between July 19 and September 1.

Cllr Louis Stephen asked whether the council could again use its reserves to keep the splashpad’s opening times the same as they are now.

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The council’s director of finance Shane Flynn said the council did not have reserves to cover the predicted gap in next year’s budget – with the £2.2 million hole expected for 2023/2024 too big for the £1.8 million the council has set aside and not yet tied to any projects.

Cllr Jabba Riaz said reserves should only really be used for “emergencies and dire circumstances” and the council should be ‘building rather than depleting’ them.

“Using the reserves is the coward’s way out,” he said. “We need to make the tough decisions now so we can reap the rewards later.

“It’s not an easy decision but decisions need to be made and we need to have the courage to make them.”

Committee chair Cllr James Stanley said: “If we are not making a saving of a similar magnitude that we were considering at the beginning of the discussion, then where does that go? How does that potentially affect other services?”

The city council has warned of job losses and further cuts to services with a worrying gap in the authority’s budget expected to rise to £2.2m next year and at least £4m in the next five years.

The council warns that already squeezed services will be cut to the bone with only the amenities the authority has to do by law spared from the chop.