A MAJOR park in York has opened for the first time in three months.

Rowntree Park has been shut since mid-December following flooding, but finally reopened on Monday, March 11.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, the Friends of Rowntree Park said the site had finally been able to reopen.

The post read: "Rowntree Park is now open!

"It’s been three months closed due to floods.

"Thank you to the council and volunteers but take care as it’s still saturated with water.

"Parts of the play area are fenced off."

The Friends of Rowntree Park issued a statement in late February explaining the long closure.

It said: "Rowntree Park has been closed since mid December due to flooding. 

"In 2023, the park was closed 20 per cent of the year due to the risk of flooding.

"Since mid December, the river has hit high levels a number of times and therefore even when the council start to manually pump, anything achieved has been set back.

York Press: Rowntree Park has reopenedRowntree Park has reopened (Image: Sue Gabbatiss/ Camera Club)

"Once the flood water is cleared, there will be a lot of tidying and repairs to do."

At the time, March 11 was set as a reopening date to allow for a major clean-up effort from volunteers once water had subsided. 

The park usually closes when the Viking recorder on the River Ouse reaches 3.1 metres. The closure threshold used to be higher, but it has been lowered due to cracks forming in the beck's flood wall.

James Gilchrist, director of transport, environment and planning at City of York Council, said: "Due to the location of the park and the fact it was built on land that used to be water meadows, high river levels prevent drainage and the water table in the park is also affected.

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"There are systems in place across the park to help manage these conditions, but it’s unavoidable that ground water levels will rise when the river is high, and especially now when this is combined with the high levels of rainfall in York over the last three months. 

"When flooding is ongoing it’s not safe for the park to remain open to the public, but even once the water subsides there is still a significant amount of work that needs to be done to clean up and get the park ready for visitors.

"This winter we’ve seen multiple occasions when river levels have been high, on two occasions the river has ‘over topped’ the park wall, and even when levels have dropped, it can take considerable time for the parks pumped drainage system to reduce water levels."