CIRENCESTER’S long-overdue skate park will be open by the summer despite new contractors still not being appointed to finish the building work, according to the head of the town council.

Andrew Tubb, chief executive of Cirencester Town Council, told the Standard he is confident the skate complex will be finished in time for summer.

Construction of the park, which was originally intended for completion last November, had been blighted by constant bad weather and has been on hiatus ever since the developers, 1Skatepark, entered administration.

“We are exploring the various options at the moment and hope to appoint new contractors in the near future with the view to completing it by late spring or early summer,” said Mr Tubb.

He went onto explain that a formal opening ceremony of the skate park has been planned to take place in August.

1Skatepark, the firm brought in to design and construct the park, announced that it had gone into administration in February.

It is understood that the remaining work on the skate park should only take another two to three weeks to complete, providing the weather remains settled.

In a report presented at the town council’s annual meeting on Tuesday, April 22, Cirencester mayor Joe Harris said it was “especially disappointing” that the construction work had been held up.

He also said that the town council had carried out “stringent” background checks before choosing 1Skatepark to carry out the work.

Building work on the £200,000 park began in October although the idea had been in the pipeline for more than seven years.

Once completed, the park, which was joint funded by Cirencester Town Council and Sport England, will cover an area of 900sqm and will offer around 20 different obstacles for skaters of all abilities.

It will contain a circular circuit and feature a Roman Corinium pillar seating centrepiece along with newly installed floodlights that will allow users to carry on skating until 9pm.

Visit www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk for a full history of Cirencester’s skate park.