Grosvenor & Hilbert Park Skatepark‏

As some of you maybe aware there is some money to be spent on the Grosvenor & Hilbert Skatepark..

There is alot of writing in this post, but maybe of benefit to all of the park users

These are the current plans, for the change:

The following message was posted on the FOGH park facebook page:

"A message from Cally about the skate-park: If anyone has any more feedback or suggestions please can you email them to cally.fiddimore@tunbridgewells.gov.uk by Monday 18th Aug. Thanks! "

"Calling all skate park users! As part of the HLF Project we would like to make some improvements to the much used and much loved skate park. The budget is limited so we can't expand the park or get new large pieces of equipment but there is scope to make some decent improvements. The original skate park creators have put together an initial plan of improvements as shown in the images. However, neither they nor us wish to do anything until we know what you want! I (Cally) shall be speaking to people directly at the skate park about this over the next couple of weeks but please feel free to share this around as the more feedback we get the better. If you would like to speak to me directly about this please feel free to get in touch. It would be very useful to know whether you are a skater, BMX'er or scooter'er when giving feedback please :o) Thanks"

For those of you reading this pen her an email and let her know your views, here are mine, lets get a discussion going:

 "Hi Cally,

Im writing to you with great concern having just seen there are plans to update the skate facility in the Grosvenor and Hilbert park. It is brilliant news that there is some money to invest in that area of the park as it is much needed. The reason for my concern is that it appears that you are just adding in obstacles with little regard for what is currently wrong with the park already.

Currently the ground at times does not often actually meet with the metal ramps that have just been dumped onto the uneven concrete which has been there since  the park was in its original format. Meaning that you ride down the ramp, hit the poor tarmac slowing you down making it hard to cruise around the park and then procede to hit a piece of metal sticking up with a gap from the ground.

Each of the boxes in the park have metal edges on them. This is a good idea, however it has not been done correctly. The metal edges stick up again leaving lips making it hard to grind and dangerous to perform manuals.

I think it is important that these problems are considered first before just adding more obstacles into the park. Im personally suprised that the park meets health and saftey regulations.

As for the new plans please see my comments below:

1. What exactly is "Additional Web Fill"?
2. This could be a good imporvment however you can only approach it from the left hand side of the park how are you supposed to approach it from the right? As you are putting a curved block on top of the bank (Point 10) meaning that there is not really a line to skate it
3. See above comments, plus the run out on the left hand side will run into the mini ramp potential creating problems for those using the mini ramp
4. Brick gap - This could be an interesting addition however ruins the run up to the bank to wall situated behind the mini ramp potentially making that non skateable
5. There is very little point in moving this block, it is currently not skateable in its current position due to the lips on the metal around the edges as mentioned in my second paragraph of this email. In this proposed position only the flat edge facing into the park will be skateable and only approachable from the left hand side. With the run out into grass and a fence making it pointless
6. This could be a fun addition
7. It looks like the rail is barely being moved and is it sensible to moce it closer to the block that backs onto the current fun box as it will make it near on impossible to skate
8. There very little run up pr run out area here
9. Repaint\Coat park? The Ramps are metal whats the point in wasting money on paint?
10. This could be run but only if done as well as the block on top of the box at mile end skatepark in London, which was aslo built by Gravity but uses the limited space there much better

It appears that there has been no consultation with anyone that skateboards when looking at adding to the park, before you put me down as someone who just likes to moan I have been skateboarding for over 10 years and run a blog www.crabface.co.uk dedicated to skateboarding around the Tunbridge Wells area. So with out trying to blow my own trumpet have quiet a bit of experince in the area.

As mentioned previously i think it would be better to concerntrate on the current floors in the park before creating any more. Once those have been addressed we could then concerntrate on additions to the park which I think would bring a lot more people to the area.



I look forward to hearing from you,


Kind Regards,

Luke"