The owner of the Let’s Go Hydro aquapark has rejected a statement by a Parkrun group which he believes implies he is a “greedy landlord.”
Knockbracken Reservoir Parkrun group, which said that after four years of weekly 5k runs they would no longer be granted access to the Carryduff reservoir site after this month.
“We’ve been in discussions with our landlord, Let’s Go Hydro, to find a way forward,” the statement read.
“Sadly, a compromise hasn’t been reached yet. However, we will continue to reach out in the hope of saving our parkrun.”
Calling it a “lifeline” for many in the local area, they added: “We’re heartbroken at the thought of it ending. This parkrun has been a huge part of the Carryduff community, and we’re incredibly grateful for every runner, walker, volunteer, and smile.”
Speaking to the Irish News, Let’s Go Hydro owner Pete Boyle criticised what he described as an “aggressive” statement, and said it was not accurate to call him a landlord.
He said he had always provided access to the private facility for free and often had to clean up afterwards.
In addition, he blames the added traffic on Saturday mornings for a major hike in his rates bill as well as encouraging overnight break-ins.
“They don’t pay any rent, so I’m not a landlord,” he said.
“We’re not closing it down, they’re perfectly capable of moving it to another place.
“We’ve let them use it for free for years, we’ve cleaned the toilets and there’s nothing in it for us.
“We’re surprised they didn’t post to thank us for all we’ve done for four years, but to have the implication of being a greedy landlord.”
“There’s 200 people and 200 cars on site every Saturday morning.
“The problem with it as well is that it’s inviting more people on to site. So last night we had people overnight breaking in and smoking drugs.
“The problem with Parkrun is that it seems to tell people, ‘this is an open site and you can come here when you like.’
“We’re not a park. Our rates jumped from £30,000 to £110,000 and I was told that’s because we hosted Parkrun on Saturday morning when rates valuer turned up.”
Mr Boyle said this amounted to £2,000 a week, despite the facility being closed for seven months a year.
“I’ve also been told I have to pay to upgrade the road junction because of Parkrun because there’s too many cars, that’s another half a million pounds we’re going to have to spend.
“We got wrecked during Storm Eowyn and nobody turned up to help, so the notion that they contribute.”
Asked if there was any way back for the local runners, he said: “Maybe the council could rent the park for the citizens.
“We’re three years into an appeal with Land and Property Services and there seems to be no end to that debate.
“We’re not closing Parkrun, we hosted them for free over four years and we thought a thank you might have been in order.
He went to call the problem of overnight break ins “heartbreaking.”
“How would you feel if you were getting called at 4am to be told your business has been broken into?
“It’s extremely dangerous as well. If somebody drowns, I’ll go to jail. We have four and a half miles of fencing, security cameras.
“But if people are determined to get in they will. So I’ve a whole team of workmen here now to put up more gates that stop people getting into the lake.
“That’s another £30-40,000."
“We get no recognition, we’ve spent £12m on this site and I’ve taken not one pound out of it in wages.
“So I get called a money grabbing b******?
“I get really upset about this you know. This is not an open park, I am fully liable if anything happens here.”
Knockbracken Reservoir Parkrun has been contacted for a response.
by figurine89
31 comments
Boyle comes across like a thin-skinned cunt. The statement from parkrun is fair and not aggressive and he whinges about having to clean the toilets and someone breaking in for some bizarre reason. He must be paying a decent amount in advertising in the Irish News, otherwise why would they publish this bollocks?
Do the park run people not spend money in his cafe?
Rates from 30k to 110k because they host a parkrun? I call BS on that one!
Why would the parkrun cause his rates to jump? That sounds a load of bollocks.
Sad to see the Irish News go with the clearly targeted, rage bait headline. The article paints a very different picture of a reasonable man who seems to have a point.
>I’ve taken not one pound out of it in wages.
context: his other businesses return £8M profit a year
The statement from Parkrun sounds almost pretty mild and apart from the misuse of the word “landlord”, accurate. It certainly didn’t “call him a money grabbing bastard”???
The owner is well within is rights of course. It’s costing him a lot of money, but he doesn’t have to come over such a dick about it, conflating the parkrun with various other issues that seem unrelated. How is it Parkrun’s fault that he put up extra fencing or that he had a break in? Even more absurdly, he seems aggrieved at them for not fixing his property due to a storm.
Why didn’t any of the runners come to help when the storm happened? Seemed like a thing good people would do
Few laps round the Ivanhoe car park instead
Two things jump out at me
– I don’t see the correlation between overnight break-ins and hosting the parkrun. How are they related?
– The whole concept of parkruns are that they’re held in public parks, not private land
The whole setup seems bizarre to me.
If someone came to my house every Saturday for four years, parked in my driveway, used my toilets and then had the temerity to go on socials to claim I was the bad guy……sheeeeit! I would not be happy.
The sense of entitlement by that Parkrun group knows no bounds.
Fair play to him, it’s his park and his land and it’s up to him what way to run it. Excuse the pun
Given the huge lie of “if anything happens I’ll go to jail” when talking about people breaking in, I’m included to assume the rest of it, much of which sounds implausible is complete BS.
Tm
Man’s a right moaner. Can’t believe all that he says is accurate at all.
It’s a shame because it’s one of the best parkruns going. Loads of space and pretty flat. There are also good toilet facilities to make a complete mess of. And there’s nothing I loved to do more after a PB than break into other areas of the site just to smoke drugs.
TBF I regularly break into places to smoke weed since I started parkrun. People don’t speak about this enough.
Complete bum steers with the drug use/ break ins etc. not sure why that’s even mentioned.
What to take from the article is he’s gona have to drop half a mil to upgrade the junction to accommodate the park run and he’s already out thousands on top of that cleaning facilities, rates bills etc. etc.
Seems to me like a real breakdown in relationships here. Maybe the parkrun team took it for granted or maybe a perception of that in any case. On the other side I can’t see how all these extra costs can be attributed to parkrun only so hard to tell the exact truth some either statement. Sad it got to that, I’m sure the owner hoped it would bring goodwill to his business but sadly that seems to have dissipated. I also would have hoped the council could have intervened on rates bills and other costs like road upgrades if it was solely down to parkrun.
No-one comes out of this particularly well.
The owner sounds a spoofer and the Park Run crowd characteristically entitled.
I had dealings with him many many years ago when applying for a job in Argento. He was rude and aggressive towards me then… and anything I’ve seen him posting it’s always the same, he’s got a huge chip on his shoulder.
First they went for the cyclists . I said nothing .
Then they went for Parkrunners . I didn’t blink an eyelid .
They then went after the weed smokers and I thought , well hey that’s ok .
Then they came for me .
Parkrun organisers are the UK equivalent to the US Home Owner Association groups.
>“We’re not a park. Our rates jumped from £30,000 to £110,000 and I was told that’s because we hosted Parkrun on Saturday morning when rates valuer turned up.”
The article should be leading with this.
Ultimately it’s his land and he is free to do what he wishes with it whether people agree with it or not.
Having the public on your land is a massive risk for have reasons. Sounds like he just had enough and that’s fair enough.
I went on the “Lets Go Hydro” website and searched for the word “park” and it appears 8 times on the front page. Including a big picture with lots of people there and the words “AQUA PARK” in big letters.
He shouldn’t be liable if someone breaks in and drowns. That’s their fault, not his. A sad sign of the blame culture laws that governs us all.
I’ve ran this parkrun and it is a fantastic run but reading about his rates going up because of the park run and the additional costs, it’s definitely not worth it. However I don’t see how a parkrun would encourage people to break in. I would say that’s a separate issue. Still bad all the same but people are there to get their pb and leave.
I’m struggling to find in the statement anywhere that it says he’s a “money grabbing b*******”. Landowner is normally what parkrun call the owners of the land, surprised that that slipped through to be honest.
Cry me a river.
totally understand his point of view. the organisers are probably faultless, but with that many people it’s certain there’ll be litter and bottles left lying around, dog shit smeared on the ground, toilets left in poor order and parking a disaster, it’s alot of liability for nothing in return so fair play i reckon!
don’t see how it encourages break ins though, and pretty sure that entire junction was only upgraded a few years ago
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