4.0 Legal issues
The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 and the Dog Control Orders Regulations 2006 allow Coventry City Council to require owners to clean up after their dog in areas designated under the order. The Council has designated all highways (including roads, footpaths, school playing fields, woodland, sports fields and parks). All dogs are excluded from entering the fenced children’s play areas at Coombe and there are designated ‘Dogs on Leads’ areas. Work is in progress with Rugby Borough Council to further educate out visitors around dogs on leads and dogs under control and in addition control of dog faeces.
4.3 Concessions
The café in the Visitor Centre ‘Café in the Park’ is operated by Coombe Abbey Hotel as is, the “Kiosk in the Park” and in August 2020 the same operator opened an ice cream kiosk facility and offers a financial return to the site matching, and it is hoped will exceed that of the former mobile ice-cream concession in the future. New to the Visitor Centre in November 2021 came The Abbey Artisan Market and The Sundae Club Dessert Diner both attracting a financial return to the site and breathing new life and revitalisation into these underused units.
4.4 Licences
Go Ape Coventry opened in 2019, and other leisure offers continue to be explored to increase dwell time and income.
A complete refresh of the existing play area at the Visitor Centre took place in early 2022 and was completed in June 2022. A new pay-and-play facility opened in July 2023.
4.5 Listings and Designations
Buildings are listed by Historic England to help protect the best of our architectural heritage. When buildings are listed, they are placed on statutory lists of buildings of ‘special architectural or historic interest’ compiled by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, on advice from English Heritage.
Listed buildings are graded to show their relative importance:
- Grade I buildings are those of exceptional interest.
- Grade II* are particularly important buildings of more than special interest
- Grade II are of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them.
The Park is listed Grade II* in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens. The Park contains a Scheduled Ancient Monument, a tumulus which is considered to be a prehistoric burial mound (Warwickshire No. 26) and is located to the west of the main drive, north-west of the Visitor Centre. Coombe Abbey is a prestigious country hotel which has been developed from a historic grade I-listed building.
