Tunbridge Wells' Ice Rink Is Confirmed for This Winter - But the Council Just Had to Pay £65,000 to Keep It Going

Tunbridge Wells' Christmas ice rink is confirmed for another year - running in Calverley Grounds from Thursday 26 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, closed on Christmas Day - but it's returning on shakier financial footing than the glossy branding lets on. A Tunbridge Wells Borough Council report published in May reveals the event has struggled to break even since the pandemic, and the Cabinet has just approved £65,000 of council spending to help keep its operator, Icescape, willing to carry on running it.

Icescape, trading this year as "Icescape Tunbridge Wells," has sessions on sale now at tunbridgewells.icetickets.co.uk, with a 10% early-bird discount on bookings made before 2 November. Online saver prices run from £10 (child) and £15 (adult) for general sessions up to £45 for a family ticket, with box office prices slightly higher. Alongside standard skating, the season includes Parent & Toddler sessions, half-capacity Quiet sessions, adults-only Disco nights, 2-for-1 sessions and a Santa Skate. It's a continuation rather than a new arrival - the rink has run in Calverley Grounds for over a decade, last year under the "SKATE Tunbridge Wells" name, with Icescape itself describing this season as "a new chapter on ice" at the same site.

The council's own report is unusually blunt about the event's finances. "Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event consistently broke even or generated a surplus, resulting in the establishment of a reserve," it states. "However, since the pandemic, operating costs have increased significantly, and the event has not achieved profitability." In 2023/24 it was delivered at what the report calls "a substantial overspend." Icescape has told the council it's willing to keep delivering the event - but only "provided that it can achieve at least a modest profit." That's despite the rink remaining genuinely popular: the report puts annual footfall at between 35,000 and 40,000 ticketed skaters, plus roughly 80,000 visitors to the park around it.

The root problem, according to the report, is that the rink currently runs entirely on hired diesel generators, burning around 45,000 litres of diesel a year, with fuel costs that have made that setup increasingly unaffordable. The council's preferred fix is to upgrade the electrical substation serving Calverley Grounds so the rink - and other park events - can plug into mains power instead. UK Power Networks quoted £84,412.93 plus VAT for the work; the council is contributing £65,000, with Icescape covering the remainder. Officers estimate the switch from diesel to electricity would save a conservative 2,900 tonnes of CO2 equivalent over the infrastructure's lifetime, rising to around 3,500 tonnes if the electricity is sourced from a traceable renewable product - alongside cutting noise and local air pollution. The alternative the report rejects outright is simply subsidising Icescape's diesel and biofuel costs directly, which it says could exceed £20,000 a year with no long-term fix.

The report's own risk section is candid about timing: "There is an operational risk if UKPN are not able to complete the works in time for this year's run of the event." UK Power Networks' indicative timeline is around 28 weeks from confirmation to completion, and the report says the project needed UKPN's go-ahead by 1 June to have any chance of being ready - while also being scheduled around a run of other summer events in the park, including FanZone 2026, Shakespeare in the Park and Local and Live. Cabinet Member for Sport, Leisure and Health Cllr Pamela Wilkinson signed off the recommendations on 26 May, and the decision was formally resolved - approving the £65,000 spend and the partnership with Icescape to engage UK Power Networks - on 3 June. Source: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Portfolio Holder Report, 26 May 2026, Decision record, 3 June 2026, Icescape Tunbridge Wells