11/05/2017 - Permalink

Whitchurch Skate Park ramped up

Related topics: Leisure, culture and heritage / Partner organisations

After many years of campaigning, Whitchurch will finally get a skate park in the town. Over the last 10 years Shropshire Council, Whitchurch Town Council and many others have been talking about raising funds and building a skate park in Whitchurch. The main stumbling block during this time has always been a lack of funding.

All the funds are now in place and to start the next phase of the project, we will now begin work with our project management consultants, Red Kite Network Limited, who will assist us in writing the specification, tendering for the work and, lastly, appointing an appropriate contractor who will build the skate park. It is hoped that the construction of the skate park, which will be built in Jubilee Park, will start sometime in summer 2017 and it should take about 6-8 weeks to build.

A skate park in Whitchurch has been talked about for many years and we are sure many people thought it would never happen. A working group was formed about two years ago to resurrect the project and over the course of this time we have consulted with young people, applied for funding and spoken to various groups about how they might be able to support this project.

The funding for this project has been obtained from Shropshire Council (Section 106), Whitchurch Town Council (neighbourhood fund), Next Generation Youth, and Twemlows solar farm.

Sean McCarthy, Shropshire Council’s sports development officer, said:

“This is fantastic news, and something that is long overdue for a town the size of Whitchurch. The working group have worked tirelessly over the past couple of years to get the funding in place. I know this is something the people of Whitchurch have wanted for a long time and it’s good to see that all that work has now paid off and Whitchurch will finally get a skate park. It’s great that so many people want to get involved with skateboarding and BMXing, and I can only see this interest increasing given that they are both Olympic sports.”

For further information please contact Sean McCarthy at sean.mccarthy@shropshire.gov.uk or on 01743 255933.