SUFFOLK SKATERS SCOOP NEARLY £50,000 FOR COMMUNITY PROJECT

Bury St Edmunds Skatepark users are celebrating their successful bid for Lottery funding.

Bury Skatepark Experience, a group of young people and users of the Skatepark in Olding Road, were delighted to hear the news that they had been successful with their application to the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme and would soon be receiving £49,999 for some much needed improvements to the site.

Bury Skatepark Experience have been running officially since September 2009, although the history of the park dates back over a decade. The original planning began in 1998, after young people approached St Edmundsbury Council with a petition showing just how much local support there would be for the project. Taking the initiative, the young people who use the park regularly aged 10 – 25 formed a committee and were heavily involved in the original design and fund-raising for the site.

"Bury Skatepark Experience is a group ranging in ages and backgrounds, but with one common interest”, Chairman Will Pattenden, 19 explained “together we aim to maintain and improve the Bury St. Edmunds skatepark facility by raising awareness throughout the town and the region”

The group’s endeavours have been rewarded with a Changing Spaces grant of £49,999. Although the Skatepark has served the local young people well, after seeing ten years action, some upgrading is in order. The development will see the installation of a brand new BMX Pump Track, plus lights, planting, bins and benches. Jay Mills, one of the original committee members and now treasurer of Bury Skatepark Experience, told us "We are all very pleased to have been awarded the funding for the Bury St Edmunds BMX Pump track, this has come as a direct result of hard work put in by our Skatepark committee, who have pushed this project forward.”

The aim of the group is to create the best skatepark facility in Suffolk, for young people and the wider community, and this grant from the Big Lottery Fund is an important step on the way to achieving those goals.

“Our successful application to Changing Spaces gives us the opportunity to give the skatepark grounds much needed improvements, which we believe will open up the park for a broader clientele.” said   Will Pattenden “This, however, is just the beginning, our group plans to continue these efforts in order to achieve a better park for everybody". Jay Mills agreed -“expect even more great things in the future" he added.
 

The process for applying for the funding began just over a year ago with the group applying for the funding with support from St Edmundsbury Borough Council. Portfolio holder for community Cllr Robert Everitt said:

"watching this young committee take on the job of fundraising so professionally, and being successful, flies in the face of the criticism often levelled at the younger generation, we at St Edmundsbury will continue to support this well used and successful facility"