Skate park & BMX track in need of repair work

Town Councillors will discuss their annual safety report next week, which indicates that the BMX pump track and the skate park could need repairs.

Members of the Town Council's Services Committee will meet next week to discuss the annual 'RoSPA' safety reports.

Each report looks at the areas of responsibility of the town council including play parks, BMX track and the skate park.

Whilst most areas are rated as low risk with some very minor repair work needing to be carried out, both the BMX pump track and the Skate park are rated as 'high risk'

This is because they cannot be rated any lower due to the inherit nature of the activities taking place.

The report however does indicate some repairs at both the BMX pump track and the skate park.

The BMX pump track fencing 'does not comply with the standard rating of a BMX pump track' according to the report.

However when officers raised this with the design contractor, they were 'adamant that the proximity of the fence outweighs the potental for injury if the fence were 3 meters away down the slope'.

The skate park also requries repairs to the kerbs and the surface which scored a risk score of 13.

The kerbs are 'misaligned by more than 20mm' and the 'surface has small holes or dips' according to the report.

The reports also recommended that the surface is swept of debris on a routine basis and that the concrete edges are repaired.

The former Operations Manager had indicated to town councillors that a responsive maintenance schedule would be developed to fix these issues, however it is not known if this has been initiated.