2005 News Archive
11th December 2005 - End of Week 5
Added a couple of pics I took this weekend, looking through the wire. The bowl blockwork is now finished, so the shape is finally visible.
2nd December 2005 - End of Week 4
Just been up to the site today, despite the recent cold and wet weather progress is good. The blockwork for the bowl platform is in, and the aggregate base layer is being shaped to give the bowl its basic form. It's looking a lot bigger inside than I expected! There's about 8 inches of concrete and rebar to go in on top of what's there, so the finished platform will be that much higher than it is now. Work is then going to move from the bowl end towards the street end. Pics here.
21st November 2005 - Week 2/3
2 Week's work has now been completed. The site now looks like a building site rather than an old basketball court. Drains are in at the bowl end, the bank has been stripped back and blockwork is starting to go in. New pics here
11th November 2005 - Week 1
Work started as planned this monday. The site is now completely fenced off and all of the cabins and gear is in place. Not much to see at the moment, but the old fencing is all gone, the bank is being dug up, and they're just about to start digging the drains in. Some of the major parts have been marked out, so it's possible to start to get a feel for the layout. You can see some pics in the gallery.
21st October 2005 - Work to start 7th November 2005!!
And here we go...the start date has been set for the 7th November, with a finishing date in mid-feburary. So we'll all be up and running for the spring sunshine! The hold up was to do with the drainage, which was going to cost tens of thousands of pounds, and was holding everything up. Fortunately, an alternative drain was found which solved all of these issues.
30th September 2005 - Contractors Arranged, Design Finalised.
Been a while since the last update, but the news is all good. The contractors and project management have all been arranged; the design has been further tweaked and details finalised. Some problems with drainage and site access have now been sorted, and timescales have been arranged. A 14 week build time is estimated, and we're now just waiting for a definate start date.
19th July 2005 - Lease Agreed
The council has finally agreed the lease of the site, according to this email from Geoff Jackson:
Some good news from tonight"s Ribble Valley Borough Council Community Committee meeting.
THEY HAVE AGREED ON THE PROPOSED LEASE ARRANGEMENTS - (SUBJECT TO NEGOTIATIONS ON MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS, AND HEALTH & SAFETY MANAGEMENT - AND THE APPOINTMENT OF A STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT GROUP) AND THEY WILL INSURE THE PROJECT, AND PAY FOR ELECTRICITY USED.
Looking good - now the next steps need putting on front burner.
So there is still progress, although it is painfully slow.
22nd April 2005 - Planning Permission Granted!
Good news! The planning application was approved unanimously by the council last night. So we've really got something to celebrate, and can now concentrate on the actual building.
There were some concerns raised by a couple of councilors about safety, and they have suggested that a recreational subcommitee looks in to providing some supervision at the park. However, this is not related to the planning application, so has no bearing on the building of the park. As we all know, supervision is not something which is required at a skatepark, and would be very unusual. I don't feel that it would necessarilly be a bad thing, in that it would help prevent any vandalism by non-skaters. However, I expect that as soon as the cost of providing such supervision is determined, the suggestion will vanish.
5th April 2005
The planning meeting is definately going ahead on 21st April. This will be a public meeting, so the more skaters who can show up, the better. We don't know the time yet, but it will probably be around 7pm. Get down there and show your support!
18th March 2005
Apologies for the lack of updates of late, there are two reasons for this; firstly, I hadn't heard any news, and secondly, I managed to break my wrist snowboarding.
Anyhow, yesterday, we were told that the planning application will not be heard until the 21st April. This means that the local government will have taken over 4 months to process the application; this is twice as long as the government guidelines that "80% of applications should be processed within 8 weeks". This means that the easter / early summer date for completion that was being aimed for is now out of the window, and realistically we have to look at mid-late summer.
So, not happy, but at least we now have a definate date to work from.
Related to this, there is a meeting of the project group next thursday 24th March at 7pm, at the St Mary's Centre in Clitheroe; local skaters are welcome to attend.
26th January 2005
Added a couple of renderings of the design which was submitted for planning application. It contains a couple of very slight modifications to the Draft 3 design.
25th January 2005
We've had preliminary findings back from the planning application. I'm not going into details yet, but so far it looks as if there shouldn't be any major problems with the plans. So I'm hopeful that there won't be any big delays or redesigns needed.
Also, an online Skatepark Builders List is being created as we speak. This aims to be a comprehensive list of UK park builders, ranked by the online skate community - i.e. the only people who know. Hopefully this resource can be used to avoid the horrors which have plagued the UK skate park scene since the 90s.