FESTIVE FUN
Ashhurst celebrates skate park and Santa
Christmas has well and truly come for Ashhurst residents, who opened a long-awaited skate park and watched Santa Claus roll through town on the same day.
Members of the Manawatu¯ community gathered to tear wrapping paper off the rails of the town’s new $200,000 skate park facility near the Village Valley Centre before jostling for prime position on Cambridge Ave to watch the annual Christmas Parade.
Ashhurst Community Trust chairman Richard Tankersley said the skate park would offer youngsters a continued source of physical and recreational activity they would enjoy for years to come.
Without a local skate park, they had to previously travel 15 kilometres to Palmerston North to ride their boards.
The project started in 2009 when three students looking to add some excitement to their own backyard took the idea to their local policeman.
A group of the village’s young people convinced the Palmerston North City Council to pursue the project four years later, and, after some hard graft to find funding, construction began in April.
It now stands in the heart of the village and has even been decorated with a fluorescent mural. There were plans to build a wall on the far side to include more murals, Tankersley said.
Liam Harding, 11, had copped a few falls on the new turf, but said it offered both a challenging and free-flowing ride.
‘‘It’s pretty good - you get heaps of speed, it’s got a flow to it and you can go around and around,’’ he said.
Liam had been riding scooters for about six months, but the new park would now allow him to perfect several moves.
Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith ordered children to tear Christmas wrapping from the park’s railing as he declared the facility officially open.
Ratepayers would foot the bill for maintenance, drinking fountains and murals, he said.