£155,000 Market Drayton skate park plan gathers speed

Market Drayton Town Council is currently consulting local residents to see which of the three designs is best for the development.

In May the town council was awarded £75,000 from Sports England to help breathe new life into its 15-year-old skate park. The town council has also pledged £80,000 towards the scheme.

The current Market Drayton skate park, which is close to the swimming pool, will be replaced with a larger site as part of the development.

Councillor Roger Hughes said he hopes the skate park will be built in October and opened later this year.

He said: "We now have three designs for people to choose from. They are not set in stone and we are open to ideas from people of how to make the best of the skate park.

"We are hopefully going to build a separate BMX park at a later date.

"We will make the decision about what design to go forward with next month and then hopefully start building it in October/November time, depending on the weather.

"If the weather gets bad then it will be more like April next year."

Residents were able to have a look at the plans at Market Drayton town hall on Monday.

One of the residents, who did not want to be named, said the plans looked very good.

He said: "I think they have really thought about these plans. They look very good.

"There are plenty of different bits and pieces for people to use and maybe competitions could be held there.

"At the moment the skate park is very old-fashioned and a lot of people go elsewhere to use other ones."

People have also posted their views on the plans on the town's community Facebook page.

Lianne Brown posted: "My children use the skate park every day, even more so through the holidays.

"They prefer the new skate park at Tern Hill but it's a lot of driving up and down for me so to have this on our doorstep is great for the skating community. Let's be positive and support the council in getting the project done."

Ray Willis added: "Anything that is good for the kids is a bonus for them, they are your future."

Charles Johnston, Sport England property director, said: "The Inspired Facilities fund is a helping hand to thousands of community sports projects across the country.

"No club is immune to wear and tear, and this fund recognises the tremendous work they do in helping local people keep active."