A ROYAL Marine reservist is celebrating after opening the doors of a dream business on the spot where he sold ice creams in Liverpool as a teenager.

Keith Perryman, 48, has been overseeing the creation of Active Adventures on Otterspool Promenade since getting planning permission last August.

Builders started on the adventure playground in April, and have turned three acres of grass and an old ice cream kiosk into an impressive timbered cafe with landscaping overlooking the River Mersey, in a project that has so far cost £480,000.

Raised rope walks, a military style assault course and a wooden fort will be ready by February.

But all that is merely the latest phase in a plan which has been building for a lifetime.

Mr Perryman, a former teacher who grew up in the Sefton Park area, worked in the old ice cream kiosk as a schoolboy.

He said: “I used to go there from school and at weekends selling ice creams and hot and cold drinks during the summer. It was 1975. I suppose when I look back at my career from Marines to teaching, to what I am doing now, it is not something I mapped out.

“But what I did want was to own my own business.

“Life throws different things at you and you go in different directions.

“All my years in the Marines and teaching outdoors skills has combined into what I am doing now.”