Following the news that the skate park is about to be demolished, unless within the next two days a group of people commit to a lease and meet the strict criteria being hoist upon them by the Isle of Wight Clouncil (more to come on that later) a group of determined skaters and concerned residents met last night.
After trying to make sense of the demands of the Clouncil, the group decided the first thing to do would be a clear up of the skate park.
Bare hands and fading daylight didn’t put the group off and the results of the first half hour were amazing.
Reports of the skate park being an eyesore are true, you only have to look at the ‘before’ picture on the right here (sorry about the quality – was taken at dusk on a mobile) but you have to remember that it is a work in progress.
Very little could happen over the winter due to bad weather, and as skaters also can’t use the ramp during that period, completing the work wasn’t a big priority. On top of that, the person doing the majority of work has been severely ill and still recovering.
During the clear up bricks were stacked, littler cleared away, broken bits of ply piled together and bags of sand moved into one place.
After most people had left, brooms and rakes were brought down and hats off to Boney, Tom and Simon for sticking it out until well past 9.30pm, working in the dark to clear up the site.
Anyone who regularly walks past the skate park, will agree that it looks much better today than it has done for a very long time. We were surprised to see that there is actually tarmac under the rubble and stones, once these were brushed back into a pile, ready to be collected at some stage.
During the meeting last night, labour was offered by members of the group to pour the concrete and finish off the park, with plans to extend it past the ramps being prioritised for later in the year.
What you have to remember here is that this is a COMMUNITY PROJECT – fundraisers and grants provided the cash to renovate the skate park and there have been many, many hours of hard slog in moving and securing the ramps.
With this in mind, we feel that it is not something that the Clouncil can give a few days notice on to get sorted or we’ll demolish it. [UPDATE: for clarification, this is us paraphrasing the following statement from Property Services …
“I would emphasise that the Isle of Wight Council does not have funding to manage and maintain the park and if a named licensee cannot be found within a matter of days the equipment will be removed from the Esplanade.”]
Those involved are totally at a loss as to how the Clouncil can have the bare-faced cheek to threaten to enforce this within a matter of days. It’s hard to see this as anything but bullying.
The group have been in touch with Property Services to ask for an extension on the decision to demolish the ramps, whilst negotiations take place with stakeholders.
We’re not sure what is driving the Clouncil to take such immediate and radical action, but we’ll do our best to find out.
If you have a comment to make about the future of the Ventnor Skate Park, please add your comment to the post Ventnor Skate Park To Be Closed? Updated
