By 1,500 sign petition to save skate park
A petition to save Grimsby’s Kent Street Skate Park has received more than 1,500 signatures since the threat to the facility was revealed this week.
User of the skate park Jay Beatty is leading a campaign to stop it from being demolished under a council plan to dispose of the facility.
A report which was unanimously supported at a meeting of the Cabinet yesterday (Wednesday) proposed the disposal of the Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) and skate park by way of a 99-year lease to a local Community Interest Community (CIC) for a peppercorn rent.
The Corinthians Complex CIC intends to refurbish the site, which also contains pitches, and use it as a permanent venue for Futsal, “as well as expand to other compatible sports and wellbeing activities”, as previously reported.
This would save North East Lincolnshire Council, the owners of the area, around £2,988 a year in maintenance costs.
However the report also says: “The lease will not include the skate park structures which will be subject to demolition, or relocation, to provide a new vehicular access to the site, as the MUGA is currently only accessible via a pedestrian footpath, which is not compliant when operating under Health and Safety grounds.”
Jay Beatty has now started a petition called ‘Save Kent Street skatepark’.
He said: “I’ve grown up skateboarding this area and all I’ve seen is more and more facilities taken away from us.
“Years ago they already stopped taking responsibility for the skatepark, it hasn’t had lights for over 5 years and I can’t ever remember the bins not being broken yet they claim they spend £3000 a year maintaining the site?”
He continued: “Kent street is our last remaining free-to-use skate park for the whole area of Grimsby and Cleethorpes and the council want to demolish it.
“In a year like 2020 full of so many negatives the one beaming light I’ve witnessed over this year is the amount of youths picking up a skateboard this year and spending more time exercising, it’s so amazing to see.
“There isn’t a time where these facilities are more desperately needed than now.”
He said his first instinct upon reading the news was to start an online petition “which amassed more than 250 signatures in an hour”.
He is also appealing to people to contact Grimsby MP Lia Nici.
Jay added: “We are not asking for more, we are simply asking for you to please leave us with the last place we have left.”
Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, Cllr John Fenty pointed out the Corinthians had “reached out” to the local community to see if there was any interest in someone taking over the skate park and having it relocated, but none had been found.
He had also heard there was a petition and said: “If that comes forward in any force then the objective will be to find a new location and some grant funding to have it relocated elsewhere.”
East Marsh ward councillor Steve Beasant said he supported the Corinthians’ pitches aspect of the plan but was ‘livid’ about the threat to the skate park and now intended to ‘call in’ the decision, which would see it go back to a scrutiny panel.
