Petition for skate park
June 9th, 2010Last week I presented a 1000 signature petition from skaters to a Council meeting. The petition urges the City to build the skate park that it has already spent significant time and money planning for Prince Alfred Park. After weeks of trying to present the petition
to Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who talks big on skate parks but never took the time to respond to the groups calls or emails, they gave up in frustration and gave the petition to me to present.
The Prince Alfred Park skate park traces it’s origins to 2006 when the City commissioned a ‘Youth Facility and Skate Facility Needs Study’ to inform & advise councillors and staff on possible locations for skate parks in the City’s local government area. The number one recommendation was for Prince Alfred Park and Clover got right behind it. The skate park was included in the master plan for the long awaited makeover of the park’s swimming pool, basketball court, open space areas and the Coronation Centre. The skating community were thrilled until the skate park was deleted at the last minute by the Lord Mayor who had suddenly decided the location was ‘unsuitable’.
The skating needs study confirmed the need for improved skate facilities in the City of Sydney and identified the need to construct these facilities in highly visible, easily accessible areas that are co-located with other facilities that will be used by young people. Areas like Prince Alfred Park, or perhaps another park like Victoria Park near Sydney Uni, would be ideal.
The findings make it clear that the City’s parks are the best places for skate facilites. That is why it is frustrating to see the planning for expanded facilities stopped in their tracks as soon as a few residents lobby the Lord Mayor to oppose them.
The objections are typically noise, graffiti and antisocial behaviour but it will be clear to any well informed person that skate parks are not places where any of these things run rampant - they are quite simply spaces where young people can spend hours honing their skills, socialising and getting some healthy exercise. The skating community in Bondi for example are so concerned about these ignorant perceptions that they have banded together to warn off others who want to tag their skate park with graffiti and are even planning to paint over tags when they appear. Further, the perception that skaters create anti social behaviour is not based in fact but is founded on fear & ignorance. In contrast research has shown that alcohol consumption definitely leads to anti social behaviour but alcohol is available in great quantities throughout the City and I don’t hear anyone suggesting we ban that.
The main demographic of the skating community are young people under the age of 24 and this group comprise around 25% of the City of Sydney population. The City therefore has an obligation to identify the recreational needs of this group and provide for them, just as it provides for every other group. The skate study has identified the need and the City must now be proactive in creating the facilities.
The Lord Mayor has said publicly (and mistakenly) that skate parks should be in grungy laneways and in places where no one else wants to go. Hardly a welcoming message for the young people in our community. The suggested Millers Point site under the freeway was an example of this - the location wasn’t ideal but the Greens councillors fought for it because we saw the need for such a facility and it was better than nothing. In the end Clover was scared away from the project by the a vocal minority complaining that the noise of skaters would hurt their property values, despite the fact that 120 000 cars per day also pass those properties. My Greens colleague Irene Doutney then called for a skate park to be built at Barangaroo, a call which the Lord mayor eagerly supported - in typical fashion Ms Moore is calling for someone else to do something she is too frightened to do herself. While a skate park at Barangaroo would be great, it will take years to appear if it eventuates at all and it just wouldn’t tick all the boxes like Prince Alfred Park does.
Hopefully the 1000 signatures collected by dedicated members of the skating community will serve as a wake up call to Clover Moore and she will reverse her previous backflip and restore the cancelled plans for Prince Alfred Park or as I have suggested Victoria Park near Sydney University. I will be keeping up the pressure and now it is clear that at least 1000 others will be too.
