When the weather’s looking promising and you have a whole free day, you want to make the most of it and go somewhere really enjoyable. That’s why Quingo Scooters have put together some accessible days out for an accessible mobility scooter friendly trip. This week we’re heading to Basildon, Essex, to share with you a day out that will suit all members of your group no matter what age.
Wat Tyler Country Park is set in 125 acres of striking parkland in the heart of the South of Essex. Located just outside the small town of Pitsea, it’s just 2 miles East of Basildon and 10 miles from the M25. The parkland is not just stunning, but it’s also got a lot of history behind it too from the earliest periods of time. The landscape has been created over many centuries through the mix of human community interaction with the natural environment. Used for grazing meadows, ancient hedgerows, blast mounds, tidal waterways, sea walls and field boundaries, you can certainly see evidence of these uses in the features of the landscape
What is there to do?
- RSPB Centre – Wat Tyler Country Park is home to the RSPB. They have a visitor centre on site which provides everything you could possibly want to know about the wildlife of Essex! The park contains a variety of habitats, with a great diversity of species. These include locally and nationally rare species, such as the green winged orchid, redshank, scarce emerald damselfly, shrill carder bee and the roesels bush cricket. Why not turn this in to a fun game to see which member of the group can spot the most!
- The Green Centre – Opened in 2011, The Green Centre at Wat Tyler is great for the curious ones in your group! Here you’ll be able to find out more about the environmental challenges facing the modern world and learn how we can approach the little things we do every day with the environment in mind. The Green Centre is also an exemplar green building, and a showcase for exciting sustainable products and low carbon innovation.
- Café and gift shop – Once you’ve finished exploring the park or relaxing in the sun, you can stop off at the café for some refreshments or see if anything takes your fancy at the gift shop (maybe the Himalayan salt lamp?). The café is open daily from 10am – 4.45pm and the gift shop is open daily too from 10am – 4.30pm.
- Playground – There’s also a playground to keep any smaller members of your group entertained.
Accessibility
Overall this is a great day out in terms of accessibility. On arrival you’ll find a good sized car park with 4 large disabled parking bays right outside the exhibition centre. The park in general is mainly flat, and the paths around the village green are paved. The wide walkways through the park are non-slip and have passing places. Most areas of the park are accessible, apart from some large areas of grass which wouldn’t be suitable for your mobility scooter.
Moving into the centres in the park, the exhibition centre has automatic doors, and also a restaurant upstairs with a good size lift up to it. There is also a café which has an accessible veranda for mobility scooters and wheelchairs. Accessible toilets are available throughout, and staff are always on hand to assist you with anything. The Green Centre and RSPB Centre are also fully accessible with ramps up to the entrance.
Share your accessible attraction with Quingo!
If you’ve been to visit any interesting attractions on your Quingo or would like us to write about a particular place you have visited, we’d be delighted to hear from you. You can email your stories, recommendations and pictures by filling out the contact form on our website and we’ll feature them on our blog.
About Quingo Scooters
The Quingo Scooters range features six models to suit your needs and budget. New models are now available from just £22/week on our new contract hire scheme which includes all servicing and maintenance, Insurance, Roadside Recovery, Call Outs and Consumables including Batteries and Tyres. For more information on this or the latest Quingo Scooter range, please visit our website. Alternatively, if you have any Service questions you can always contact us or call customer services on 01582 430 900.
Keep up to date with the latest mobility scooter advice, tips and interesting places to visit on the Quingo Scooter Users Blog. Connect with Quingo and keep up to date with all our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.
All Quingo Personal Mobility Vehicles are provided by Forever Active, the UK’s exclusive distributor. Forever Active is a trading name of Advantage Marketing Corporation Limited (AMC). AMC Limited is an appointed representative of First Senior Insurance Services Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. First Senior Insurance Services FSA Register number is 308478.