Skatepark plans suffer setback

PLANS for a skatepark in a north Suffolk market town have hit a stumbling block - but it is hoped the plans will still go ahead.

Saxmundham Skateboard Park Committee's £45,000 funding bid has been turned down by the National Lottery, but they have vowed they are still committed to the project.

The group will now put a bid together for another lottery grant - this time from the Playful Ideas Programme.

Heather Heelis, who has been working on the funding bid, said: “We were greatly disappointed but we are still totally committed to the project and putting plan 'B' into action.

“It's a lottery at the end of the day and you never know who you're going to be up against but this is a great project.”

She said they were putting their second application together now and will submit it as soon as possible.

The bid will be for the same amount of money again.

“There's still the determination to get the project up and going,” she Mrs Heelis. “We still want it and the young people still want it.”

The skateboard park is planned for the Memorial Field site.

It will feature a range of challenging and exciting steel ramps, with inbuilt soundproofing.

Cllr Marian Andrews, of Saxmundham Town Council, said: “We are very disappointed but there are other avenues to explore and we are intending to do that with full gusto.”

She said the funding the group had applied for, the Reaching Communities Programme, was apparently under extreme pressure and had received more applications than the funds available.

It has been more than a year now since Saxmundham Town Council first gave the project the green light. This followed two town surveys and a public debate at the time.

The town council has set aside £10,000 for the facility's lighting, which will cost up to £81,000, but the rest must be funded by grants and donations.