Wonka movie park's million-pound makeover

More than a million pounds will be spent improving a park that featured in the Wonka movie.

Renovations will be carried out on the artificial lakes and meadow at Verulamium Park, in St Albans, which are reported to have unpleasant algae and smells in warmer months.

St Albans City and District Council said it would enhance the quality of the lakes and improve biodiversity.

In 2022, the producers of the blockbuster film paid the council £41,000 to use the park, with £25,000 ring-fenced for improvements, the authority said.

The council, which owns the park, said the work would cost "a seven-figure sum" and it had "set aside a £2.2 million budget".

The lakes were built more than 80 years ago to a design that would not be allowed today, it said.

The lakes are heavily silted. That will be removed and recycled to provide "highly fertile planting areas around the edges".

Helen Campbell, a Liberal Democrat councillor who chairs the public realm committee, said the plans were "for an area of the park that is in need of improvement".

The council said Bell Meadow, currently closed for safety reasons, is a flood-plain and the ground is often underwater or waterlogged.

It did investigate returning the River Ver, which flows through St Albans, to its natural path, but it said that could cost between £4m and £6m, which was "well beyond the available budget".

Its preferred option is to keep the river in its current channel, but create a wetland in the meadow, along with a permanent, raised footpath.

"The goal is to transform this area of much-loved Verulamium Park and create new wetlands, footpaths, wildlife habitats and nature walks.

"It won't solve the flooding as the area is a flood-plain, and with climate change we are getting more and more deluges of rain," Campbell added.

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