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Place featuresYou are in: Jersey > Places > Place features > Skate park for St Helier at last  Skateboarding Skate park for St Helier at lastBy Claire Peters After five years of campaigning it looks like Jersey skaters will finally get a purpose built park, thanks to a proposition tabled to the States.
Jersey may finally have a skate park by the end of the year. A proposition was tabled in the States on Tuesday 16 January 2008 for a purpose-built facility on the New North Quay. Deputy Ben Fox made the proposition, which also included the building of a youth and community centre at the Waterfront. Skaters have been asking for a park for years, but have been refused numerous times because of legal and planning issues.  CISA have installed a ramp at St Ouen Youth Centre 'An ideal site'The proposal is to build an outdoor park on the old TNT warehouse at the end of the quay, which he describes as 鈥渁n ideal site鈥. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not the biggest of sites but it provides a permanent, all-year-round facility,鈥 explained the St Helier deputy. 鈥淲e鈥檝e spoken to a lot of young people over the years and they鈥檙e screaming out for a facility.鈥 Skating for ChristmasDeputy Fox said that the plan is to erect a marquee style cover over the park which should 鈥渒eep off most of the rain and wind鈥. He鈥檚 hopeful that the skate park will be 鈥渦p and running by the end of the year鈥 as it is relatively 鈥渆asy to erect鈥.  Something, somewhereJake Hipwell, President of the Channel Island Skate Association (CISA), is delighted that years of campaigning have paid off: 鈥淥bviously this is excellent news and we鈥檙e bordering on ecstatic at the moment,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been looking at this and campaigning for this for over five years now鈥 it鈥檚 not like we specifically wanted anywhere 鈥 we just wanted something somewhere!鈥 Outdoor vs indoorWhilst an indoor skate park has some obvious advantages, it also brings with it a lot of red tape 鈥 for example first-aiders would need to be on the premises all the time it was open. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to bring in extra rules or legislation nor does the association because then you really discourage people from using it,鈥 explained Jake. An outdoor skate park on public land should come under the same jurisdiction as playgrounds 鈥 use at your own risk. Jake said the proposed facility will 鈥渄o a perfect job鈥.  'Very optimistic'Funding for the New North Quay park is available from the Waterfront Enterprise Board, which has money set aside for a skate facility. Both Deputy Fox and Jake are keen for CISA to be involved in the design process. 鈥淚t would be pointless to design it without the input of the people who are going to use it, because we鈥檇 end up with something that doesn鈥檛 necessarily meet the needs of the end user 鈥 that鈥檚 futile,鈥 described Jake. Deputy Fox is 鈥渧ery optimistic鈥 that the park will be agreed and completed before the year is out. 鈥淎s you know, plans come and plans go鈥y proposition is there to cement it so we don鈥檛 have any more disappointments like we鈥檝e had during the last four years,鈥 explained the deputy. 'Getting stuck in'Jake also assured that CISA will do all they can to ensure that St Helier finally gets its skate park. 鈥淥bviously the skateboard association will be pushing hard to do everything we can,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be getting stuck in and making sure that we put everything into it that we possibly can.鈥 last updated: 29/04/2008 at 16:19 Have Your Say
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