Skatepark coming to fruition at last (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Skatepark coming to fruition at last

A DECADE after campaigners starting championing the need for a skateboard park in Malmesbury a planning request for the facility has been submitted to North Wiltshire District Council.

Wiltshire County Council has submitted the application in conjunction with a bid for permission to create a new youth centre on the same site, which would feature an IT suite and recording studio.

Both the skateboard park and the youth centre would be situated in Gloucester Road, at the former Xograph business premises next to Somerfield supermarket.

The district council now has eight weeks in which to decide whether to grant planning permission.

The next step would be to invite bids for the work needed to complete the refurbishment of the building, which would need extensive work completed to ensure it satisfies laws regarding access for the disabled.

For the Malmesbury Skaters and Riders Action Group (MSRAG), the application is a huge step in the right direction - ten years after it began the fight to have a skateborading facility in the town.

Chairman, Sue Alexander, said: "We've never managed to find a suitable site, so it is a very exciting moment.

"After all these years it's always been the site that's been the hiccup really.

"I've got lots of friends around Malmesbury whose kids will be interested, but it won't just be the younger ones, I think some of the older ones will be interested.

"My son knows quite a few people who will be interested in coming back from university and using it."

The skateboard facility will cost £53,068 and be built in two stages, the first of which will involve putting in a base and some of the equipment, with the rest to follow in the second stage.

The district council's Malmesbury Area One Committee has already pledged £14,100 towards the cost, with a further £2,061 set to be rubber stamped at its meeting, which was scheduled for last night. (Wednesday)

Malmesbury Town Council has given £9,000, the Minton Group £20,377 as part of its redevelopment of the Lucent Technologies site, with Malmesbury Carnival, the Wortheys Project and MSRAG making up the remaining funding.

The man instrumental in finding a suitable site for the combined youth centre and skatepark is Malmesbury county councillor John Thomson.

He said: "When I first got elected to county (in 2001) that was one of the things the youth said to me, "are you actually going to deliver this, this is all talk, we've heard it all before."

"We could actually nail it this time. I'm not going into a third term (of office) without delivering it because it's gone on for a long time."

The costs of converting the building to a youth centre are more than £250,000, added Cllr Thomson, although exact figures cannot be revealed yet due to issues of confidentiality.