Author: simon
Ventnor Skate Park To Be Closed? Updated
Tuesday, 15th April, 2008 at 12:08 pm, Isle of Wight
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.
This looks like it’s not far off happening so, if you want to keep it, you’re going to have to make your views known sharpish.
How did this come about?
Here’s what we understand of the background.
Back in March 2007 £10k was raised to rebuild the ramp. Rob Chuter spent loads of effort building the ramp more or less alone. There were a few of fund raising events in Ventnor, one of which attracted 2-300 people.
Fast forward to now - We understand that IW Council has said that somebody has to be responsible for the skate park; £10m of liability insurance is needed (originally this was £5m, but was doubled for some reason); and that £60,000 is needed to finish the work on the park.
IW Council has said they can’t pay for it and passed it on to Ventnor Town Council, who last night voted that they couldn’t pay it either (fair enough as their budget is around £100k/year).
Now it’s fallen through those cracks, it appears that there’s very little chance of it staying open - in fact, they’re planning to dismantle it.
We understand that some of the more out of date councillors questioned if anyone was still skate boarding these days - Err, yes grandad it wasn’t just a blip in the 70s.
Quite why it’s got to this point before any of the public (or press) knew about it, is unclear.
Some people are wondering why the council appears to be so keen to get the park closed (can it really cost £60k to get it finished?).
Skateboarding is very much alive, as skateboard filmmaker John Cattle tells us, “there’re more stake boarders around on the Island than there has been for years.”
The student bus rider has just been doubled in price, so what are kids to do if they can’t afford to leave Ventnor? Sit in the park and get drunk?
What Can Be Done?
Currently the course of action is unclear, BUT to get the ball rolling, it could well be worth getting down to the meeting at the Community Projects tonight if you don’t want this to happen [update: we hear that this is not a public meeting, but the issue is being discussed and they may open doors to the public - tune back later for update].
Don’t forget - Closures like this occur if the powers-that-be think that there’s no support.
Here’s a vid shot at the end of last year at the Ventnor ramp.
Ventnor Skate Park, Ventnor, Skating
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April 15th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
£60k…How do they arrive at £60k?
April 15th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Health and Safety I expect.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
April 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
[…] 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 […]
April 15th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
[…] Isle of Wight 15, April 20087:30 pmVentnor Community Projects will be discussing the future of Ventnor Skate Park at their committee meeting […]
April 16th, 2008 at 11:01 am
this stinks. me and my mates use this skate park regularly in the summer time and lots of other skaters come from around the island. it’s a rad place to hang out - would the council rather we hung about on street corners?
April 16th, 2008 at 11:08 am
We have to fight this closure - this is a community project - how can the council decide they are going to take it away? It should be saved or at least moved. Rob slogged his guts out last summer building and has been really ill over the winter, hence the lack of work to finish it off.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
unbelievable - why won’t the council take responsibility for this? i can see that the town council can’t afford the 60 thousand, but it can’t cost that much to pour a bit of concrete and fix up a fence? can it? the skate park should be saved - a lot of hard work went into fixing it last year
April 16th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
how terrible that the skate park is to close, it has been so well used , by young and not so young. Any rich sponsers out there that want to help out
April 16th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Ventnor skateramp should not be removed.
It it is a well used facility and positioned in an area where the skateboarding can be contained, is easy to access but is away from residential areas.
Skateboarding sometimes gets a bad reputation from those uneducated, but it is a legitimate sport with top ranking athletes earning more per year than premier league footballers.
Would you rather your children got into skateboarding or hanging around on street corners only partaking in vandalisum?
The best and most memorable times of my life have been those spent skateboarding and the friends I made along the way are still my best and closest.
The Isle of Wight needs MORE facilities like this NOT LESS.
The remooval of the ramp would be a blow not just to Ventnor but the whole Isle of Wight.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
DONT CLOSE IT, if they close it where are the sk8ers going to go? on roads, parks, private property etc. For god sake, why dont the council give the people (the very people who vote them in)what they want for a change instead of taking thigns away all the time (inc Schools). Why do they need insurance, all they need is a sign saying ‘we take no responsability for an injury caused’ job done! most sk8ers no the risk and are whilling to sk8 insured or not. Is this Island becoming a place OLD FARTS only, whats next to go? i mean the motocross is to noisy, WhightAir to noisy, Bestival to noisy
NEED I SAY ANY MORE
DARREN WINTER
April 17th, 2008 at 7:26 am
This is a prime example of how the isle of wight council runs, when they are involved in a skatepark it all goes tits up, they don’t understand skateboarding so they just plonk any ramps onto a bit of land ( look at rookley skatepark ) just as an excuse to say that they have built skateparks for the youth. The can never get anything right, things need to be done ourselves. Let’s face it, they can’t demolish it if every skateboarder on the island is skating it when they want to rip it down can they ?
April 17th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Having read through the draught licensee agreement which the IW Council is requiring some fall-guy to sign in order to save the skate park from imminent demolition, I wonder if any other skate park, children’s play area or other facility has had such stringent terms applied to it? Or has the Council designed the agreement in such a way as to make it impossible to undertake?
The terms of the agreement and the short-notice given of the threat to demolish the park suggest a lack of willingness on the part of the Council to give the public an appropriate amount of time to respond to this threat. It seems to me an insult to all those who have worked hard on the project and to all those who have enjoyed using it and might enjoy it in the future. At the very least it is a heavy-handed approach. At worst, it suggests to me an anti-social and fascistic mindset on the part of councillors involved.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:22 am
[…] 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 […]
April 17th, 2008 at 8:23 am
[…] 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 […]
April 17th, 2008 at 9:09 am
“In Germany, they first came for the gypsies, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a gypsy. Then they came for the Bolsheviks, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Bolshevik. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics. I didn’t speak up then because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up.” - Martin Niemoller, A Lutheran Pastor arrested by the Gestapo in 1937
First the schools in rural communities, now the skate parks…who’s next?
April 17th, 2008 at 9:50 am
[…] More interviews including one with a five year old skater coming soon. 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 […]
April 17th, 2008 at 9:57 am
[…] 17th April, 2008 (5 seconds ago) at 9:57 am (5 seconds ago), Isle of Wight As you will have read earlier in the week on VentnorBlog, the Isle of Wight Clouncil have informed Ventnor Town Council that they’ve […]
April 17th, 2008 at 11:01 am
[…] 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 […]
April 17th, 2008 at 11:08 am
[…] If you don’t like the idea of the Ventnor skate park being demolished by the council, feel free to add a comment on the original story. […]
April 17th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
this is an outrage that they are thinking of closing the skate park, i’ve been down there every possible moment and i was there from the first moment there ever was to get a skate park in ventnor then we finally get one and a few years later they want to get rid of it! we need to keep this skate park or we will just start skating the streets again and no-one will like that… will they! What a catch 22!
April 17th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
The only skate park on the island which is ‘operated’ by the IW Council is the one at Seaclose. All the others are run as community projects through the local councils (either town or parish). Of course the skate park needs to stay open, but it’s not the IW council who want it closed. On this occasion they are not the villain of the piece. We need to get our local Town councillors and the people at Community Projects back on board if there is to be any possibility of rescuing this valuable resource.
I might add that, to my enormous surprise, I found Matthew Chatfield at County Hall to be a most sympathetic and decent fellow who concedes that the sum of £60k would by no means apply if the project was run locally.
April 17th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
[…] If you don’t feel it’s right, please feel free to add your comment to our original story. […]
April 17th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
It looks like they were presented with an impossible situation by the IW council - do you want to pay £60k to finish the stake park? With a budget of only £100k/year, they couldn’t say yes.
From what we can see, the villain is IW council … again.
On Matthew Chatfield - we’ve got nothing but the highest regard for Matthew. As you said, he’s a sympathetic and decent fellow.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Simon _ It sticks in my throat to find myself supporting the IW Council in this discussion but…
My understanding from a conversation with Mr Chatfield is that the council is not, nor has ever been, responsible for the operation of the Ventnor skate park. Their concern is that, because it’s on council land, in the absence of adequate insurance and health and safety provision, any lawsuit resultant from an accident would fall on their doorstep and we, as tax payers, would end up paying. It’s perfectly reasonable to suggest that this wouldn’t be particularly fair. (It’s hardly their fault that we have created such a litigious society)
I think the point they’re making is… It’s not their baby. Whether or not it should be is an entirely separate matter.
The fact is, if there was a local will to rescue the facility, we all know it could be done for considerably less than £60k.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Hmmm complicated, looks like the grinding will continue on the streets then! I don’t know if it’s the same in Ventnor but an interesting thing in Sandown that I’ve noticed is that the IW Council have gone to considerable lengths and presumably expence, creating anti-skateable areas in popular skatery spots!
There’s something really obvious to say about that but to be honest there’s probably not much point!
April 17th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
The poor get poorer and the rich get richer, thats what the council and govenment are all about. Keeping low income poeple in a state of frustration and fear, to the point we feel totaly helpless and we do what they say without question.
F*@K THE GOVENMENT
Darren Winter
Winter Productions
April 18th, 2008 at 10:01 am
[…] 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 […]
April 18th, 2008 at 11:28 am
As the park is on council land, are they considering putting a block of flats on it? Or maybe a car park? I wonder if it would be treated differently if it was the borough of Heir Pugh?
Our council not listening to us? One of the main reasons the LibDems were voted out last time was because of the Schools fiasco. The current administration went against their election promise and carried on regardless anyway. I suggest voting LibDem (or other) again for the local elections coming up soon - and I don’t usually talk politics!
Ventnor, you have my support.
Grrr!
April 18th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Tulse Hill
I have just realised that the posts and mini pavement installed recently by the IW Council are that body’s contribution to skateboarding in the town and not the traffic hazard they appear to be. How far sighted of Johnny F Bond to recognise the need in his area and quietly get on with the work. Well done Mr Bond.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
keep it open for bloopins sake !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 19th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Could the town council sign the lease and work with a local group to keep it going? It seems that the momentum is there to keep it open, but an official body needs to take on the lease - how many other skate parks have leases signed by their town or parish councils?
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
[…] Wednesday, 23rd April, 2008 (6 seconds ago) at 5:57 pm (6 seconds ago), Isle of Wight 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. […]