Ventnor Blog

Bardon Vectis are very nice people!

They are going to give us a lot of what we need to start our unique skatepark project.

We already have the wooden ramps in place, and will soon have a concrete dream too thanks to Bardon Vectis.

Eccleston George are on board, crafting us a skatepark out of the concrete unlike anything else in the world. Every obstacle will be a skateable sculpture, and with a sprinkle of Dave Badman’s metal-working genius our park will be alive. (more…)

Thanks to the Ventnor Skate Park Group for this update on the latest position with saving the Ventnor Skate Park. Ed

There’s been a lot of really positive moves for the Ventnor Skate Park since the last posting on here, so much so, that we’ve not had time to let you know about it until now!
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It’s with absolute open-mouthed astonishment that we read the latest press release from the council today about the Ventnor Skate Park.

The last paragraph carries the following sentence,

“Any other groups or individuals who are interested in taking on the licence can still get in contact with the council if they have their own proposals for the park.”

A better illustration of what is so wrong with the current administration sitting at County Hall couldn’t be more clearly shown.

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Isle of Wight Council director of environment and neighbourhoods Stuart Love said “The council is delighted a group has contacted us expressing an interest in taking on the licence to run Ventnor Skate Park. (more…)

Finally, VentnorBlog has received the breakdown of the £60,000 figure quoted by IW Property Services to Ventnor Town Council regarding the Ventnor Skate Park.

We should have received this on Friday when the IW Council press office tell us they sent it, but for some reason, it didn’t get to us. Something to do with it not being sent to our regular VentnorBlog email account, but there you go.

We’ve got it now and can share with you details of the costs estimated to complete the renovation of the Ventnor Skate Park.

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There have been some very positive steps forward for the Save Ventnor Skate Park Campaign over the past few days.

Over the weekend, we contacted Radio One DJ, Bestival Head Honcho and Isle of Wight Ambassador, Rob Da Bank and we’re pleased to report that Rob is more than happy to be involved in the campaign.
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It was on Wednesday afternoon that we were promised a breakdown of the £60,000 figure that IW Council had stated to Ventnor Town Council would be needed to complete and maintain the Ventnor Skate Park.

The Press Office promised us ‘chapter and verse’ by mid morning the following day and when we wrote back asking what time we could expect the breakdown (surely a simple cut and past from a spread sheet?) we were told …
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Good to see this little piece on the CP Website today about the new half pipes being tested for Ryde Skate Park.

It’s also encouraging to see that this skate park has the support from the Ryde Youth Club and the Hampshire Police Authority.
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The last of the four chats we had with people using the Ventnor skate park within the space of an hour - there were others to speak to, but we couldn’t get around them all.

These three Ventnor girls, aged around ten, were clearly unhappy about the idea that the skate park might be demolished by the IW council, saying “I don’t want it to be closed down because it’s really fun.” (more…)

More interviews from the single hour that we were at the ‘never used’ skate park in Ventnor - yes, that’s three sets of people we spoke to in that short time … and counting.

Mitch, James and Toby are all late-teenagers from Shanklin.

They’re regular users of Ventnor skate park and have been for many years.

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THIS IS AN AMENDED VERSION TO THE ONE RELEASED YESTERDAY
ISLE of Wight Council is asking parties interested in running Ventnor Skate Park to come forward as soon as possible or it may face an uncertain future. The facility was opened in 2001 following a request made to the council. Keen to support the proposed skate park, the council provided free use of its land to house the ramps.
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While down at the Ventnor skate park the day that we heard that the IW council were planning to demolish it, we saw a young lad developing his skating skills.

When we say young, we mean young. This little nipper was a mere five years old.

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We have just heard that the County Council have extended the deadline for someone coming forward to take on the lease of the Ventnor Skate Park until 2nd May.

While this extension is welcome, it is still insufficient time to gather support, funding etc. and raises more questions, including …

• Why should this lease and the stringent conditions attached to it be the responsibility of one individual?
• Why are the County Council trying to shed responsibility when they should be encouraging activities such as this?
• WHAT IS THE BIG RUSH?

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

As you will have read earlier in the week on VentnorBlog, the Isle of Wight Council have informed Ventnor Town Council that they’ve estimated that it will take approx. £60,000 to take on the project of completing the renovations of the Ventnor Skate Park and maintaining it.

The group involved with the renovation had estimated that it would take about £6-7k at the most to complete the project and in fact had a quote from a concerned skater whose in the construction game of £800 on Tuesday night to finish the concreting of the initial section. (more…)

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.
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We went down to the Ventnor skate park yesterday and chatted to a few people about what they were doing there, what they liked about it and if they would like it to stay open.

This was all prompted by the disturbing news the IW Council is threatening to demolish the often-used skate park imminently.

It’s important to remember that this stake park is a community effort. It’s work in progress - one that has taken much sweat to build.

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Ventnor Community Projects will be discussing the future of Ventnor Skate Park at their committee meeting tonight.

Although these meetings are not normally open to the public, as they will be discussing this important issue, they are inviting any concerned members of the public to attend.
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We’d been saying that skateboarding hadn’t died back in the 70s and that skate parks like Ventnor’s needed to be kept open, but we didn’t really appreciate quite how young some skaters were!

Prepared to be stunned by the vid after the jump (more…)

The fate of the skate park is raising much interest in the Ventnor Community today. This comment just in from Ventnorian Ken Knapman. Ed

Destruction of Ventnor Skate Park? It should not be allowed to pass!

The community built the Ventnor Skate Park for the youth. Instead of congratulating the efforts of the hard working people, who put so much into the park both in terms of its financing and its building, the Council has deemed to threaten those very same people with its immediate destruction. This is an act of vandalism, the very thing the facility was attempting to prevent.
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There’s a strong possibility that the recently refurbished skate park in Ventnor will be demolished.

The Ventnor town council voted last night that they couldn’t pay the £60k that the IW council is asking to keep it open.

We’re digging into this and will report more shortly Below is extra we’ve found out.

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Back in August, the first Ventnor StreetStyle Festival with skateboarding competitions, Battle of the Bands and graffiti art took place.

We weren’t able to attend, so really pleased to hear that on the day a number of video cameras caught the action and Island film director, John Cattle has been working hard editing all the footage.
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Local artist, Ken Knapman will be holding an exhibition of his work at the Ventnor Community Projects (1 Albert Street, Ventnor) this coming Sunday.

Ken has a wide variety of work which will be on display, such as this one of Dick Taylor. What a pretty thing he is.

All proceeds from the door will be donated to the Ventnor Skate Park.

Show your support, bring your friends and please give generously, the recommended entrance fee is £2 or by donation.

Doors will open from 11am (better make that 11.02am remembering the 2 min silence) on Sunday 11th November. Light refreshments will be served.

Great to see work started last week on brightening up Ventnor Skate Park.

Graffiti artist Nathan, has clearly been working hard and the results so far look brilliant.

Apologies for the grainy-ness in the photos, I just took them as i was walking past and the light was going.
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Graffiti artist, Nathan Holt will be down at the skate park on Wednesday and Thursday this week (weather permitting) to paint the side of the skate park.

Nath was responsible for running the very successful graffiti workshops at the Ventnor Youth Festival back in August.

Anyone is welcome to go along and have a go with him and help to decorate the side panels.

Call me for more information on: 07976 009414

There is a real buzz in the air as the The White Air Extreme Sports Festival draws ever closer.

Less than a week to go and we’ve got news for you every day this week, in the run up to one of the most exciting sporting events of the year.

If you’ve been to the festival before, you might’ve noticed that there are lots of ‘HAVE A GO!’ activities. This year, the festival brings you even more and as part of a BBC programme, celebrity sports stars Colin Jackson (pictuered) and Phil Tufnell will go head to head at ‘HAVE A GO’ activities early next week. They will be trying out some of the more radical extreme sports White Air has on offer.
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