Skate park is removed at £20k cost to taxpayer
Cracks in structure had made it ‘unsafe’
More than £20,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent to remove a hotspot for the skating community after it was deemed “unsafe”.
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) spent two days taking apart the skate bowl at South Park, Maidstone, which has been there since 2006.
The process has cost the council £23,000 and there is now a bare patch of earth where the bowl used to be.
In a statement, the authority said: “Independent play inspectors employed by Maidstone Borough Council identified high risks with the skate bowl cracking and moving apart.
“The joints are now out of alignment and are opening up at an accelerating rate each year to a point where it can no longer be kept open for public use.
“We are sad to have to dismantle the bowl, however, it has been monitored and assessed for a number of years and as the council has identified faults, and cracks are opening up, the bowl cannot be made safe.
“No skate specialist contractor has been prepared to work on the bowl to attempt repairs. This is due to the sections moving apart and sinking.”
The spokesman added: “The council’s short-term priority has been to make the area safe.”
Former apprentice candidate JD O’Brien, from East Peckham, near Tonbridge, has recently been involved with similar projects, including a £250,000 Olympics-inspired skate park at St
Mary’s Rec in Swanley.
He said: “If you don’t understand the core problem then things won’t ever change.
“There are a lot of areas around me complaining about kids riding BMXs in the High Street but that’s because they have nowhere else to ride them.
“This means people see them as unruly and therefore don’t wish to help, meaning these kids will have nowhere to go. It’s a catch-22.
“There may be some council members who don’t understand how important something like this is and they’re just trying to do the best job they can.”
Because of budget constraints, the council is not actively seeking to replace the bowl at this stage.
A Shepway Youth and Community Centre volunteer, who didn’t want to be named, said: “I remember you could not see into it when I was young because it was that busy. It seems a shame.”
Many in the area describe the park as a hotspot for anti-social behaviour.