Work starts soon on Honiton’s new skate park

Work will start soon on building a fabulous new £90,000 skate park in Honiton – designed by the users. The existing park will close on 17 February for around 10 weeks while the work is carried out.

East Devon District Council (EDDC), and young people from Honiton Youth Centre and Honiton Community College have been working together since July 2013 to design the improvements to the facility in Allhallows Field that skate park users have asked for.

The £90,000 has come from EDDC’s main budget and is being spent on Honiton skate park as it was judged to be the most in need of improvements in the district, with many of the ramps at the very end of their life.

The skate park will need to be closed from 17 February for about 10 weeks (depending on the weather). All the current ramps will be removed and concrete ramps will be created on the site.

EDDC worked with Honiton Community College and Honiton Youth Centre to find out what improvements the young people wanted to see. The users said they wanted a concrete skate park with ramps poured on-site. They asked for a half-pipe facing the opposite way to the one that is there now, a quarter pipe linked well to the half pipe, a grind rail and a spine.

The young people’s specifications were sent off to several skate park companies, who came back to EDDC with their interpretations of what the young people had asked for.

The skate park users got to vote on which one of the designs they wanted to see installed. Of the 113 young people who voted 88% chose a design from 1Skateparks which includes artificial grass (see graphic).