At two of the UK’s most-visited theme parks – Chessington World of Adventures Resort and Thorpe Park Resort – professional grounds care and maintenance is of utmost importance.
That responsibility falls on two lean teams with different challenges in terms of the make-up of their sites, but with a shared objective to ensure visitors experience a pristine and diverse landscape all year round.
Both parks have invested heavily in new John Deere machinery
which is contributing to output being maximised and new approaches to be
developed.
On the outskirts of south-west London, Chessington is home to one of Britain’s biggest theme parks, as well as a zoo and hotel Resort which attracts up to 14,000 people a day in peak season.
The site management team, led by Nick Burch and Tom Beith, is responsible for over 200 acres, including 60 acres of ancient woodland.
Getting around and working with a diversity of operational requirements means the team relies heavily on its machinery.
Chessington’s new John Deere fleet is made up of two HPX 815E Gators, a 1570 front rotary mower, and a 4066 compact utility tractor.
The new 4066 is proving to be a particularly wise investment as it has enabled the team to mulch on-site, saving tens of thousands of pounds on bought-in materials.
“The mulcher driven by the tractor is huge for us” Nick said. “Before, our green waste was skipped and then recycled at a huge annual cost. At the same time we were buying mulch in. We got the mulcher for all our green waste and animal waste, and now it’s spread all about the site.”
Twenty miles away, another Merlin Entertainments attraction – Thorpe Park Resort - is focusing on presenting a perfect theme park for hordes of visitors.
Thorpe Park’s Site Manager, Andy Plumbly, has been working with the brand for his 23 years at the park, where a four-strong team is responsible for maintaining 160 acres of land.
Andy runs an almost-identical fleet of mowers and Gators as the Chessington team, which was also upgraded.He also has a higher horsepower 5M Series tractor to work with.
“These machines are very reliable, and you always know what you’re getting with John Deere,” says Andy, "having machinery like Gators to get around and get everything done is essential to the job.”
