PRESS RELEASE: Greatness Skate Park Re-opening Event 24th of October 2023
Published: 26 October 2023
Sevenoaks Town Council at its meeting of the Community Infrastructure Committee held on 11th September 2023 agreed to allocate £54,509 to fund the refurbishment of the Skate park at Greatness Recreational Ground at Mill Lane following recommendations from the Youth Services Committee and the Open Spaces & Leisure Committee.
On Monday 9th October 2023 Kings Ramps started the refurbishment works on the site to ensure that is ready for the Re-opening event that took place on Tuesday 24th October. The images below show the progression of the work on the skate park up until the event.
Posters where placed at the Skate Park, around the Town including notice boards and details of the event was shared with a number of different events websites as well as being shared on social media prior to the event to try and gain as much coverage.
We received news that early on Tuesday the 17th October the container that the contractors had been using to store their tools in had been broken into and all their hand tools were stolen as well as the generator that they were hiring. The police have been notified of this and they are asking local people in the area if they have any CCTV in the area if they could share it to figure out what happened, they are currently carrying on to try and meet the deadline by purchasing items from tool station. Despite this and the unfavourable weather conditions, Sevenoaks Town Council and Kings Ramps hosted the re-opening event on Tuesday the 24th of October for the Skate Park at Greatness Recreational Ground, with Sevenoaks Youth Council contributing £500 towards the event.
On the day the Mayor of Sevenoaks opened the event and Kings Ramps provided Skateboarding workshops hosted by two of the Counties top professionals and provided equipment with live Skateboard and BMX demonstrations. They also provided Skateboard/ BMX competitions that were split into age groups to make it fair with prizes given to the winners of those competitions. It was noted that during the event we saw a large number of young people engaging with the park using scooters on the ramps. We saw approximately 200 young people engage with the event throughout the day.
Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned issues and poor weather not all of the ramps were able to be opened on the day, Kings Ramps worked throughout the event and are carrying on to ensure the park is finished with all of the cladding and skatelite in place before the skate park can be fully re-opened. Appropriate benches are also being sourced for use at the Skate park and will be installed as soon as possible.
For more details please contact:
Ieuan Chandler-Wilson Youthwork@sevenoakstown.gov.uk
26th October 2023