To cut a long story short, the regeneration project for Bollington Skate Park at Adlington Road had a little difficulty at the start of the year, with the council planning department deeming that planning approval for the project would be needed after all. So after some frantic hasseling of some of the design companies, the project team last week submitted the most suitable design for planning approval. The decision should take a couple of months. The pics above are the design that was submitted, inspired by Jago's drainage ditch idea. Its 206m2, basically the same size as the tarmaced area that is there at the moment, its bund by a grass bank all the way round and should be good for 1-2 riders at a time. Perfect!
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2 comments:
Why? Why are you so adamant that it get built in concrete? The kids 'had' a skatepark there...now the half-pipe is gone. The kids have been waiting 3 years for this so-called new skate park...the kids in Bollington don't know what is going on...Do you?
Why didn't FotR and the whole team just sort this out and get the kids a new skatepark?
It's nothing to do with planning, nor is it funding...you have funding in abundance. If you had bothered to ask the kids, they would have told you they would have been more than happy with a simple steal and wooden park - nobody wants concrete, there are already too many concrete parks around the area. Is it Just Macc Skate and Mr Pinches who want concrete?
The design sucks, the kids wanted something good, were promised something good...and they now have less than they did 3 years ago.
The advantage of using concrete is that it can be shaped rather easily and corner designs can be achieved. With corner designs it creates a flow of the park and is much more enjoyable to everyone. If the skatepark was built using wood and steel it would be much harder to produce flow and would result in just constant back and forth skating/BMX. This is why concrete parks are now the favorite choice for skatepark designers.
Another problem with steel is screws can come loose and with weathering can cause slipping. Using steel also has the problem where it joins the ground where going from smooth steel to rough tarmac if a kid fell off would result in probably cuts/grassed skin. With concrete it is a constant smooth surface and doesn't hurt as much when you fall due to sliding on smooth surface other then rough floor or stones.
I personally think the design looks amazing and favor it to the designs used at South Park and Weston park, Macclesfield. If you ask any of the kids using the new Weston park they will say how great it is and if you watch they can go round with a flow. They find much more fun then going one end to the other, stop, turn around, go back. Don't be fooled into thinking steel is the best option as it was used in skateparks throughout the 80's and 90's there is a reason concrete parks are now favored by builders and users.
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