Graham reports back from Friends of Scholes Park meeting
Cheadle and Gatley Liberal Democrats
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Graham reports back from Friends of Scholes Park meeting
Gatley's Lucy Boxes
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Anger as Gatley to lose skate park for a year
by Lib Dem team on 14 July, 2021
The Council has informed us that the skateboard ramps in Gatley Rec are going to be removed on Monday 19th July 2021. The plan is to replace it with new concrete ramps, but that’s likely to take a year. The Council has promised to work with users of the ramps on the design of the new facility. The news of the removal has come as a complete surprise to the Lib Dem team. There was some refurbishment work a couple of years ago, so we thought they were still in good condition.
The Council officer dealing with it has told us:
“Given the age of the existing facility and the level of corrosion in the framework there is not a practical or cost effective solution for repair.
The facility is currently open and we have increased the inspections frequency to monitor the existing corrosion in the framework, but this is not sustainable over an extended period of time.
We will begin the process of producing a design brief for the new facility immediately and there will be the opportunity for stakeholders to be involved in that process.
I intend to run the tender as a design competition that stakeholders can feed into and can also choose the designer they would like to work with towards a final scheme.
We will build in the opportunity for all park users to be consulted on the scheme.
This process has been successful with other wheel sports facilities delivered in Alexandra Park and Marple Memorial Park.
I would expect the process to take up to 12 months to deliver, from concept, consultation to works on the ground.”
“The skateboard ramps are well used, and its very disappointing that we’ll be losing them for a whole year.”, said Iain. “We don’t want to risk someone being injured because the ramps are in poor condition, but surely the preparation for the new ramps could have been started earlier. We will make sure that the young people who use the ramps have a say in their replacement, and we are pushing the council to get new ramps in place as soon as possible.”
Anyone who would like to be involved in the design of the new concrete ramps, please get in touch.
9 Comments
Have there been any reported injuries or fatalities on these ramps?
It seems the council has a bizarre disparity between the risk to users it is prepared to tolerate where motor vehicles are involved vs. where any other type of risk is involved. If they were taking an even handed view then Styal Road would have been closed to non-residents / emergency vehicles until the issues could be sorted…
Injuries yes, fatalities thankfully not.
As the age group of current users have suffered such terrible problems over the last two years, a time lag of a whole year would be criminal, and so harmful to the users. Seeing the expert skills and none use of the infernal smart phones, open air physical activity is crucial to their mental health. I speak from experience as a youth, Community and mentor of young people’s thinking. I currently volunteer as a teacher in the school I first taught at on qualifying. Children of today are umbilically tied to their technology. Young people walking with their heads bowed will be the cause of a lack of social skills. I can foresee cases of non-talking people. It happened with the advancement from radio into TV where the images of radio drama, etc is much more brain testing that TV, smartphone and human-less technology. Look back in envy. Go forward by more self-control and activity. Alzheimer’s and dementia could be the result of lack of brain exercise….be warned.
A great shame. Every time we walk past the skate park it is in use by people of wide ranging ages, but I’d say 30 years and under. This cohort of our society have suffered so much over the last 18 months and to have this social and fitness outlet taken away from them is awful. Is there not a temporary solution that could be used to bridge the gap for replacement? Why 12 months?
I am gutted. This is our local park and we can tell this has not been thought out. This should not take 12 months to design. Alexandra skatepark did not take that long. Neither did Handforth skatepark. Neither did Marple skatepark. They need a solid structure design wise before they go and rip apart our hobby that keeps us and our minds sane.
I am a skateboarder myself and I am outraged as to why these ramps have been taken down considering there is no structured design brief. Have a plan before you go and take our local ramps down. There is not another skatepark that is easily accessible to me and a lot of my friends now. This project was not planned carefully and shows complete stupidity from the council. This is one of the only things that keeps our mental health at level and now it is gone.
As someone who practically lived at this skatepark from 2006-2012 it’s been sad to see the steady decline of the park with the facilities being practically unusable (for skateboarding) for several years now. The switch to a concrete park is long overdue and whilst it’s unfortunate it will take 12 months, it will hopefully be worth waiting for. I’m certain a strong skateboard/scooter/bmx community will develop again in the coming years. I would love to be involved in the design process.
Hi Alex – email district.standards@stockport.gov.uk to let the council know you want to be involved.
As it is a year later. Do we know when the new skatepark is being built?