UK : East : Council close youths BMX track on "health and safety" grounds

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UK : East : Council close youths BMX track on "health and safety" grounds

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February 1, 2007 at 6:26 pm

#691649
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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TBH I don’t believe its safety fears at all; nothing has made BMX’ing any more dangerous than it was 25-30 years ago when it first became popular.

I don’t do it as I’m a bit old for it now and would only do myself a mischief anyway, but I don’t really hear of many kids getting in too many scrapes here or it would be all over the local papers..

its merely that the value of the land has increased and the Council is too fucking spineless to tell these youths that they simply don’t have enough clout in the marketplace to “justify” them having the BMX track

and then this summer the locals will complain because bored kids are setting the hedges etc on fire because they have fuck all else to do..

BMX track sale over safety fears
A BMX track which has taken young people 10 years to develop is under threat because owners Suffolk County Council want to sell the land.

The track is on heathland close to the A12 at Woodbridge.

The local authority said the closure of the track is the result of tightened health and safety rules and insurance claim concerns in case of accidents.

One of the users, Andy Hercliff, 19, said he was devastated at the plan as he had been riding there for years.

He said: “The track means a awful lot to me because I’ve spent some of the best days of my life there and made some of the best friends.

“Everyone goes there for a good time and it does not harm anyone, it’s not damaging anything or creating any noise.”
February 1, 2007 at 6:49 pm

#880538
1

Raj

@raj

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The adults will be the first to whine when bored kids find creative ways of amusing themselves or start doing BMX tricks in inappropiate locations :you_crazy:you_crazy:you_crazy:you_crazy

Round here the kids have nothing to do and nowhere to go and vandalism is rife – I feel sorry for them [a council re scale of charges has meant that hiring a hall for them to hang out in regularly has become extortionate :hopeless:] as all they get is grief – the adults have a lovely bowling green while the kids have a rundown tatty tennis court without even basketball hoops or 5 a side football goals :you_crazy:you_crazy:you_crazy [not surprisingly they play footy in the main road :crazy:]
February 1, 2007 at 7:03 pm

#880530
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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Raj wrote:

The adults will be the first to whine when bored kids find creative ways of amusing themselves or start doing BMX tricks in inappropiate locations :you_crazy:you_crazy:you_crazy:you_crazy

as it stands there is a big problem in Suffolk with arson and vandalism; which has increased with cutbacks on “non-revenue generating” youth services.

if this goes the nearest BMX track would be 10 miles away in Ipswich (not much fun if you are on a 20″ wheel single speed bike!)

I was in the area with gv23 and friends last summer, and the thing is compared to most of suffolk the area is proper minted with a lot of people who moved out from London there…

I noticed that although there are young people the only things that seem to be on for them involve spending money and/or binge drinking.
February 2, 2007 at 12:10 am

#880535
1

globalloon

@globalloon

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you have to fight for your sk8 parks

best thing the riders could do is get a high profile petition going, pointing out the social benefits of it. also do a consulation with as many people who use it about the positive impact it has and campaign loudly with the results

a similar thing was happening here recently and now the council are spending money doing the ramps up!
February 2, 2007 at 4:07 am

#880536
1

odge

@odge

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i was part of a local commity in my village to get some form of skate park or dirt biking area, but it all fell through purely because the guy who had commissioned the land would have gone ahead and built houses in the surrounding area because he had given the parish council what they wanted, so the idea was scrapped. Just shows how pure greed can fuk everyones hopes an dreams up!!!
February 2, 2007 at 12:44 pm

#880534
1

BioTech

@biotech

Member
They levelled our local BMX track about 13 years ago. Spent loads of time down there when I was younger and there were plenty of competitions that used to happen.

They flattened it with almost no warning and promised to do something with it. 13 years on and it’s still flat with a few little trees and some woodchip walkways. :annoyed: :annoyed:
February 2, 2007 at 12:59 pm

#880531
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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raverbaby wrote:

i was part of a local commity in my village to get some form of skate park or dirt biking area, but it all fell through purely because the guy who had commissioned the land would have gone ahead and built houses in the surrounding area because he had given the parish council what they wanted, so the idea was scrapped. Just shows how pure greed can fuk everyones hopes an dreams up!!!

its called something like a “Section 102” planning application; whereby someone can get housing developments approved quicker by adding a low-cost “community project” to the application.

You would probably have found (if you delved deeper into it) that the bastard who owned the land and wanted to develop it was funding your “youth committee” and was using the young peoples’ enthusiasm to try and push through his development project.

Unfortunately for him the nimbys sussed him out (but the same nimbys would have opposed the skate park anyway).
February 2, 2007 at 1:03 pm

#880541
[deleted]

@[deleted]

Inactive
Ah where i live we are a lot of small villages close together, everyone has been moaning about the kids hanging about everywhere, so they offer them a skate park to hang out in and be creative, thing is everyone says the same thing

” i dont want it near my house “

They have already closed 1 skate park in Oxfordshire because people complained about the noise they make:you_crazy
February 2, 2007 at 1:51 pm

#880532
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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starlaugh wrote:

Ah where i live we are a lot of small villages close together, everyone has been moaning about the kids hanging about everywhere, so they offer them a skate park to hang out in and be creative, thing is everyone says the same thing

” i dont want it near my house “

They have already closed 1 skate park in Oxfordshire because people complained about the noise they make:you_crazy

FFS – if they don’t want this the older locals should then just stop having kids!

The councils aren’t that daft to put these skateparks next door to the old folks homes; most often they are in the estates near to where the youths would be living.

have people forgotten what it was like to be young?
February 2, 2007 at 2:26 pm

#880537
1

odge

@odge

Member
General Lighting wrote:

.

Unfortunately for him the nimbys sussed him out (but the same nimbys would have opposed the skate park anyway).

actually the parish council were all for it till they realised the guys alterior motive.
February 2, 2007 at 2:32 pm

#880533
6

General Lighting

@general-lighting

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raverbaby wrote:

actually the parish council were all for it till they realised the guys alterior motive.

shame-I wish all parish councils were like that, the ones round here seem to want everyone below the age of 80 kicked out and sent to the towns (every other area round here is out in the sticks)
February 2, 2007 at 5:05 pm

#880539
1

Raj

@raj

Member
I dont get it – skate parks are no noisier than lawnmowers and they are keen enough to use those bloody things :you_crazy:you_crazy:you_crazy:you_crazy

A high profile petition with newspaper interviews is the way forward for sureraaa
February 8, 2007 at 11:28 pm

#880540
1

MisterDuck

@misterduck

Member
bein 16 and livin in a village based area… i gotta say, without this sorta thing there was never anythin to do, of corse now we got parties and stuff, but at 12-14 what did we do for fun? smashed stuff up. got a chase from the cops.

of corse i aint proud of it, but there simply wasnt anythin else to do. the cops in our local town split up any group of under 18’s that is “more than 3 people”.

pathetic conservative shite! ah well, its all better now, but i still sympathise with the kids who have to get a kick outta smashin up a bus station or tauntin the coppers (although windin up the coppers aint too much of a bad thing!)
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