Queenswood Arboretum — Attraction in Wellington

It's a real shame having to rate this place one star because the park and the trails are wonderful.

The reason for the one star rating is the car park, as many other reviews mention. The parking charges are high, but the real kick in the teeth is they outsource the parking to a private company who installed ANPR cameras which automatically issue you £100 for any reason they can.

My car was used to visit the car park, where the only payment machine in the car park was out of order, the driver didn't know there was another payment machine in another parking lot, deeper into the woods (you can't see it or walk past it at any point!). As the driver was unable to pay for parking, they walked to the cafe and shops, which were closed, for advice. Due to the machines being out of order, and not wanting to ruin a lovely evening they proceeded along their stroll through the woods.

A week later, I got a £100 parking invoice. A quick email to the parking company appealing the ticket solved nothing, they rejected my appeal and kindly offered me a reduced rate of £60 for a prompt payment. As anyone would be, I wasn't happy with this, angry almost. I then sent an email to queen's wood, with pictures of their defected machine but these were shot down by them, their ultimate reply was they only cancelled parking tickets for staff and volunteers, not the general public. Again, I still felt this was unfair, and common sense would prevail at some point so I reached out to the CEO of the charity explaining the story, hoping she would have some dignity see this was painting the charity with a really bad light.

Unfortunately she had the same song and dance. She told me they have lots of complaints about the parking and parking charges but don't intend on doing anything about it before hanging up the phone.

This left me with no other choice but to take the parking invoice to an independent body, POPLA. I made my case, supplying POPLA with all the information I had previously supplied Queen's wood and they ruled the £100 parking invoice wasn't lawfully given and instantly cancelled it.

From this whole experience I am deeply saddened that Queen's Wood, and the charity that run, Herefordshire Wildlife Trust allow their privately owned parking company to treat and extort money from members of the...

What to go for a walk? Want to enjoy some woodland action? Fancy a nice cuppa or ice cream afterwards? Well come along to Queenswood. We visit the woods quite often. Sometimes to walk the dogs. Sometimes to walk the kids. Sometimes to stand and enjoy the tranquility you find when surrounded by big trees. The parking here is more than adequate, providing hard standing in the main car park where the surface is good old fashioned tarmac. If this gets full there is additional parking that is slightly into the woods. So the adventure begins before you leave the car. The surface isn't tarmac here I might add, but stone that has twigs and leaves and mud all over it. Its very nice and I think my car enjoys parking here more than the tarmac area. It isnt free parking I'm afraid but you rarely find free parking anywhere these days do you? Apart from the Monopoly board . Anyway. Come rain or shine, winter, spring or summer you can guarantee a jolly nice walk here. Even autumn too. You can hunt the Gruffalo or look out for the bears. If you like trees you'll have the time of your life here as there are more than 17 of them that I counted. There are probably more but I stopped counting quite early on as I got a head ache. The last time we visited the kids wanted a hot drink from the cafe as it was a cold day. Not raining but cold and a little windy. The funny thing is that when we got to the cafe they had changed their minds and wanted an ice cream and a milkshake. Honestly, you couldn't script it could you. Anyway, thank you for reading this review. If you liked it why not clap your hands several times and shout 'hurrah' at the top of your voice. Goodbye dear friends,...

I've been visiting here for a long time, its a lovely place with fab views and the paths are well kept providing easy access. The play park is fantastic fun for the little ones to enjoy. The gruffalo trail is also good, although we couldn't find all the animals on our last visit, the owl has disappeared?

The only thing that seems to spoil our visits each time now is irresponsible dog owners who do not keep their dog on a lead. Today this happened again, we came across a really ignorant male who didn't see any wrong in letting his dog run free and walk up to others. I note it was mentioned on another thread that there are signs requesting dogs to be kept on leads but this is not monitored or enforced. I've never actually seen them either. This let's the place down and it is also a potential safety issue - you are encouraging young children to visit and follow the gruffalo trail, while putting them at risk with wandering dogs/irresponsible owners. If the staff could enforce dogs to be kept on a lead it would make a big difference.

The funds raised from the car parking fees could be used to help? I don't begrudge paying to park there at all but I don't go that often now mostly due to the chaos causes by dogs not being kept on a lead and/or supervised.

For this reason and with consideration to my safety concerns i have only...