Plans for skatepark in north Derbyshire town’s recreation ground gets mixed reaction from residents

The new facility is proposed for Hornscroft Park at Bolsover where there is currently a children’s play area, bouldering walls and a multi-use games area.

An application seeking consent to install the skatepark on a site previously occupied by a bowling club pavilion is now in the hands of Bolsover District Council.

In a statement supporting the bid for full planning permission, Maverick Skateparks said: “Bolsover town has an enthusiastic wheeled sport community. Currently there is no permanent facility offered within the town, forcing residents to travel elsewhere to practise their sport or to use areas of the town which potentially are not fit for purpose.”

Young people have been calling for a permanent wheeled sports facility in Bolsover for more than 20 years. Three youth groups have lobbied and presented surveys and designs to Old Bolsover Town Council and Bolsover District Council highlighting the need for a skatepark.

In 2021 a skatepark and youth shelter survey produced 727 responses from the public, with 77 percent in favour.

Commenting on the application for permission to install the skate park, Shearer Thurlby, of Langwith Road, wrote: “While I am not against the concrete skate park, I am against the proposed focus on a minority of our community. Could the money used for this be used to make the whole park more of use to our wider community, ie: seats, picnic tables. Lighting on the pathways, and on the existing children’s playground, making it available throughout the year, especially during the long dark, autumn and winter evenings, and to hopefully avoid loitering, vandalism and graffiti.”

Kieron Preston, whose house on the corner of Hornscroft Road and Moor Lane backs onto Hornscroft Park, commented: “I am not against the skate park being built. I am all for the ‘kids’ getting outside, rather than being cooped up in their rooms all week long.

"I have lived in the three different suburbs of Chesterfield, with two of them having parks/skate parks being built while I was living there, I have seen what type of crowd this encourages, and it is certainly not ‘skaters’ it’s more like 14/15 year olds who come with two bikes between 12 of them and then just proceed to sit on the park, cut a long story short, get up to no good.

"If this is going to be built, there without a doubt needs to be some security cameras put up around the park, with ample signage to warn these ‘kids’ that there are security cameras, and they are being filmed, and any wrongful behaviour will not be tolerated.”

Maverick Skateparks said: "Well documented evidence from police forces across the UK attests to field sports such as the proposed being a postive contributing factor for developing social inclusion and reducing crime numbers, especially among youths.”

The proposed skatepark would create an exciting contemporary facility for residents and visitors alike. “It is commonly found that families travelling from other areas to access skateparks will arrive in a location, having dropped off the skatepark user, and go on to spend a significant length of time sightseeing, shopping and dining in the vicinity,” said the company.