Grosvenor & Hilbert Lottery Grant

Now I may have been hiding under a rock, or it may have completely passed me by, until I saw a tweet mentioning that the TWBC has been awarded funding by Heritage Lottery Fund to develop detailed proposals for the future of Grosvenor & Hilbert Park. This amount being 2.7 million.

I had heard a small rumour that the skatepark was going to have some improvments made to it, so eagely clicked on the link to the plans only to scroll down looking for mentions of the skatepark. Unsuprisingly i found the skatepark on the drawings, looked at the legend to be met with the text 'Existing skatepark to be retained'. 

So the skatepark has been overlooked in the current multi million pound redevelopment.

 Now i understand that the skatepark was probably one of the last pieces in the park to be redeveloped, but look at what we where left with. Gravity came into create the new park, which was great news as they are well established in the park building market. However as I understand there was nothing in the budget for a new tarmac surface, so the metal ramps where deposited on top of the old tarmac surface. Leaving the park uneven and where metal should supposedly meet concrete, graps causing a danger for us skateboarders and killing off the flow of the park.

If this was bad enough the ramps almost looked like they hadnt been completed with metal edges leaving lips around the side of the blocks where there shouldnt be any, therefore hindering any sort of manual on a manual pad or grind. Now go to the majority of newly developed parks in the country and you will not see as much of a shambles for a 'newly developed' skatepark. Especially considering that the new developments of skateparks in the contry the standard is high, it appears TWBC is behind.

I guess we have pullled the short straw and very much been over looked, especially considering the large budget and the majority of other areas getting an overhaul. Are us as skateboarders just not worthy of being included in these developments?

There is an online survey that you can put your opinions of development HERE