No waterslide in Lanark High Street this summer

At least that’s what experts have told Lanark Business Group, so scuppering their plans to turn the throughfare into a huge artificial waterslide for a day this summer in a bid to publicise the town centre’s shops.

As reported in the Gazette in February, the Group, with funding from Border Biscuits, was going to hire the giant but portable ‘Urban Slide’ attraction to come to Lanark in August.

However, there was bad news for members at the Group’s latest meeting, when an expert report revealedto the members that the event would be impossible to stage because the camber of the High Street from the top to the Cross just wasn’t steep enough for the giant slide to work.

Said a Group spokesman after the meeting: “We regret to announce that the Urban Slide planned for 
Lanark’s High Street will not take place this year.

“Following detailed measurements of the High Street and surrounding area we have been unable to find a location with a suitable gradient for the slide in its planned format.

“ The organisers also carried out tests with representative materials to verify this.

“However, we thank South Lanarkshire Council and Border Biscuits Community Fund for their support and we remain committed to finding a way of bringing this event to Lanark Town Centre in future in order to raise Lanark’s visitor profile and remind people just what the town has to offer.”

The spokesman said that the giant slide plan hadn’t been dropped entirely and the Group would look at possible solutions, such as erecting a ramp, to make the slide feasible.

However, all hope of staging the event during this coming summer has been abandoned.