Can you spot the skatepark?
Ok, the cradle on the left gives it away, but we're not going to have a cradle! This sunken park is in Hayle, Cornwall. And we're not having floodlighting either.
What would the park look like?
A sculptural skatepark which will be
- sunken so it will hardly show from the road
- planting of bushes around the low perimeter fence to look attractive
- located in only 1% of the area so as not to prevent anyone using the space for dog walking, kite flying etc
- no lighting
- built of concrete so it is very quiet
We want this park to blend in and be an asset to the area, not an eyesore.
Here are some examples of other parks which might give you an idea of what we are planning, but please note that none of these have the amount of planting of bushes that we are envisaging.
And where would it be?
Jul 08
Jo Johnson, Landscape Architect
The project are discussing possibly skatepark locations with Jo Johnson, a Landscape Architect from Upper Stowfield, Gloucestershire who has experience of designing and building similar skateparks in Plymouth, Yate, Chepstow and Leighton.
Feb 08 - Possible companies
The committee are working on a 'call for expressions of interest' document to send to possible companies to see which ones are interested in competing for the project and also visiting other skateparks they have built and talking to other towns to see how happy they are with their parks.
Jan 08 - Wish List for skatepark
Representatives of all types of users of the User Group met up to write a 'wish list' for the project to be able to use to start negotiating with suppliers and to make progress with getting permission to use the land at Kilkenny Fields.
Sept 07 - Designs for our skatepark
In September 2007 we invited Maverick Industries Skatepark Designers to visit the Portishead to discuss skatepark location options and meet the user group with a view to producing visuals to help residents of Portishead understand what a concrete park might look like.
We have not begun the design process proper and Maverick Industries are not necessarily the company who will be chosen to design and build the park, just the first one to come and listen to the User Group's ideas and come up with some visuals and their advice and visuals are proving extremely useful. The whole process will be opened up to other companies when we finally get agreement on a location.
We need to know which parks are good and which are not!
Are there any parks you really like to ride/skate?
It would be useful if you could note down what exactly makes them so good - what heights for which kind of ramps, angles, size of coping, space between ramps etc.
When we come to really sorting out what you want in the park it will really help the designers understand what you need.
Also if you visit a skatepark whch you think is particularly well constructed please let us know where it is. We can find out who built it and consider using them for our skatepark. (Also if they're local, let us know where they are so we can add them to our list of local parks - see Gallery)