Walker's Woods Riding School

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – please read

It is with huge sadness that we have to announce that, despite our best efforts, we are unable to open our new full size riding school Walker’s Woods. We know that this is going to be hugely disappointing news for everyone on our waiting list and all that donated to our crowdfunder as well as those who have donated materials, time and labour.

We have not come to this decision easily and have explored every avenue to make this project work. The bottom line is that we cannot convince Liverpool City Council to lease us enough grazing land for us to secure a riding school license from the same city council. We have been trying profusely to have a conversation with Liverpool City Council on this for the last 2 years, but they have failed to engage with us on any level whatsoever. The local authority has prioritised other sports and have failed to find solutions for all sports to coexist in the city. This is coupled with the sale of green space around the area for housing developments, which is a huge disappointment.

Although this is hugely disappointing, we feel it is better to have tried than to not try at all. Currently, we are in a situation where we are haemorrhaging money from Park Palace Ponies trying to keep Walker’s Woods afloat whilst we await an answer from the city council. We are at a place with Walker’s Woods where stables, arena, containers and even some horses are now on site. We are about 2 weeks from full completion but have put off putting any more money into the project until we had an answer from the council. Our next yearly rent payment is due on 1st July. We have already gone £27,000 over budget which has eaten into Park Palace’s reserves. We are not willing to put Park Palace Ponies into any further jeopardy, therefore rather than pay another years rent at Walker’s Woods with no guarantee that we will ever be able to open, we have made the heart-breaking decision to stop Walker’s Woods now.

It is much too soon to tell whether we will find somewhere else, be able to sell the components or raise other moneys to repay donors. However, if you would like your donation refunded, please tell us now so that we can plan a way forward. We will raise the funds to pay back the crowdfunder total of £76,500 through a mixture of loans from our directors and the sale of the components to Walker’s Woods which will be dismantled and sold as soon as possible. If there is anyone who would like to buy a riding school in kit form, please let us know.

We ask that you please do not question our staff on this at Park Palace Ponies, and continue to treat them in a respectful manner. If you have any questions or want to discuss this further, please email us on [email protected] and one of the directors will get back to you.

Our situation raises huge issues about the future of urban riding. We opened our starter riding school in April 2017 after a huge fight against lots of red tape who did not understand the ‘need’ for us to be there. Since opening, we have offered the basics of learning to ride to 6,500 children and young people across Liverpool, and now there is not a riding lesson across Merseyside to be had for them to continue their riding journeys. No one can say that there is not a demand for a full-size riding school in the city of Liverpool. We have a huge waiting list ready to start at what would have been Walker’s Woods. Meanwhile, Liverpool City Council continue to keep Croxteth riding school closed – where is the logic in that?



We are so sorry to all who want to continue their riding journeys and have been unable to. We as a team have tried our absolute hardest over the last 2 years to get a full-size riding school open in the South end of the city. We are so disappointed that having raised the money via crowdfunder (what seemed like an impossible task), our directors and friends have voluntarily built each piece of Walker’s Woods as it stands right now, in all weathers, 6 days a week, the final piece of the puzzle could not even be discussed by Liverpool City Council. We at this point are fed up with our project and our sport feeling like a ‘novelty’ once again. The demand for learning to ride at Park Palace continues to increase but with no pathway for the riders to progress we are letting down the young people in our city. Every child should have the opportunity to follow their aspirations and ambitions in the sport they choose.

✨WALKER'S WOODS RIDING SCHOOL OPEN DAY✨
We would love to invite you to an open day at Walker's Woods Riding School next Saturday 4th March from 12:30-3:30pm. By then, several new residents will have moved on site and will be VERY excited to meet you all! The horses will need time to settle in their new home, therefore we are not yet quite ready for riding lessons yet, but we would like to invite you all down to see the progress on our new site and meet our new horses.

Please bring a picnic blanket and some snacks. There will be tea/coffee/juice and cakes available! Please share!

Hello all

We are so sorry for the lack of communication. We have very busy working towards the opening of walkers woods. Unfortunately this have taken longer than we expected. As volunteers we have been ferociously attempting to build walkers woods in our evenings and weekends.

We do have good news! The stables, arena and tack room are nearly ready!

We are hoping to open our doors mid November. This is weather dependent as the last two weeks have seen a lot of rain and us working in ankle deep water.

We will be in touch with those who have pre booked lessons to book these in. Please don’t contact us yet to arrange lessons.

We are really sorry for the delay but it won’t be long until Walkers Woods is a reality. We have been working tirelessly since we met our target to make this happen.

From all at Walker’s Woods.