Councillors have criticised Vale of Glamorgan Council for not publicising its plans for a water park at Cosmeston Lakes sooner
A Welsh council has been urged to explain itself after an email trail was published showing talks between it and a leisure company over plans for a controversial water park. The Save Cosmeston and the Vale campaign group, which is opposed to the new Aqua Park site at Cosmeston Lakes, obtained the email trail between Vale of Glamorgan Council and Aqua Park Group via a freedom of information request.
In the correspondence between a council officer and Aqua Park earlier this year the company proposed discussing a potential 15-year term for the site and was told that there was “agreement to move forward with you behind the scenes”.
Vale of Glamorgan Council’s leader, Cllr Lis Burnett, has responded saying no agreement to begin the trial of the Aqua Park attraction was made before the decision by cabinet members in March 2025 and that the 15-year proposal was the company’s suggestion alone. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
A council spokesman also said that “moving forward” refers to moving forward with the preparation of a draft heads of terms document and discussions on requirements for water sampling and other operational issues.
They added that if cabinet members had not given their approval in March and if Natural Resources Wales (NRW) had not issued its consent “these discussions would have stopped”.
Councillors raised concerns about the emails at a full council meeting on Monday, July 14, with one accusing the local authority of treating residents in a “shameful manner”.
Plans to trial an Aqua Park attraction at the eastern side of Cosmeston Lakes were discussed publicly at a cabinet meeting in March 2025 and looked at by an environmental scrutiny committee before a licence agreement was signed in April.
However discussions about this particular scheme go back as far as January 2025 and a number of councillors have criticised the local authority of not involving locally-elected representatives and residents sooner.
Conservative ward councillor for Plymouth, Cllr Anothony Ernest, said the scheme had been “very badly handled” and Plaid Cymru group leader Cllr Ian Johnson said he had “strong concerns” about how quickly it went from being publicised to getting approval.
Another Conservative councillor, also representing the Plymouth ward which Cosmeston Lakes is situated in, Cllr Rhys Thomas, said: “A full and fair consultation should have happened, one that involves the people of Penarth who were after all the ones affected by this decision.
“That should be a pre-requisition for any decision of this magnitude and not something to be disregarded as has happened in this case.
“Penarthians have a right to be heard but it seems that the Vale council doesn’t agree.
“Now we have emails obtained by FOI by the Save Cosmeston group that seem to suggest a council officer wanted to ‘avoid any sort of publicity about the plan’ and that a 15-year term for the aqua park was on the table and that was in January this year.
“That’s quite concerning and I think we need clarity from the leader or the cabinet about this specific issue.”
An email from a Vale Council officer to Aqua Park Group on January 23, 2025, said there was an agreement in place for the council to pursue a licence for the company to trial an attraction at Cosmeston Lakes this summer.
It goes on to add that a report on the proposal will need to go before council cabinet members and states “it will be essential to avoid any sort of publicity about your move before the cabinet report is agreed”.
An email sent to the council by Aqua Park Group on January 27 lists a number of “notes for discussion” ahead of a meeting between them and officers.
Among these are proposals to discuss payment, additional revenue that can be expected, pre-negotiation on a potential 15-year term, and other potential activities like paddleboarding, open water swimming, and pedalo hire.
Cllr Burnett said: “The proposal for a trial of an aqua park at Cosmeston Country Park was formally agreed by the council’s cabinet and subject to further discussion at the environment and regeneration scrutiny committee in March.
“No agreement to begin a trial was made prior to cabinet’s decision and we did not enter into any commercial arrangement with the operator until Natural Resources Wales gave its assent in May.
“Decisions of this nature can only be taken by the council’s cabinet.
“They do, however, need preparatory work to be done by council staff.
“It is entirely normal for staff to have discussions with potential partners to assess feasibility before bringing proposals to cabinet and the council’s other committees.
“This is necessary to allow us to carry out due diligence and risk assessments in the public interest.
“The emails show points for discussion at a preliminary meeting suggested by the potential operator.
“These were their suggested terms not ours and do not reflect the final agreement.
“Again this is normal practice for drafting a heads of terms document for consideration before any cabinet approval.
“During any such preliminary discussions we may sometimes advise potential partners not to share any details of proposals in advance of these being subject to formal democratic scrutiny and the final decision of cabinet.
“In this instance it would not have been appropriate for the potential operator to announce the aqua park was due to open as no decision had yet been made by cabinet.
“The council has at no point tried to prevent scrutiny of its decision to trial the use of Cosmeston lakes for commercial activities.
“At each step of the process decisions have been taken in line with the council’s governance structures.
“These decisions have been clearly documented and are in the public domain.
“Recordings of every cabinet, scrutiny committee, and council meeting where this issue has been discussed can be viewed online.”
The Aqua Park attraction at Cosmeston Lakes is being trialled until September 2025.
After this the council will carry out a full evaluation of the pilot and decide if it will go out to tender for someone to operate an attraction on site for the following season.