£75k funding joy for new skate park
More than £70,000 has been secured to fund a new skate park in a town.
Market Drayton Town Council has been awarded £75,000 from Sports England to help breathe new life into its 15-year-old skate park.
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.
The town council has also pledged £80,000 towards the scheme.
Councillor Roger Hughes said he hoped the skate park would be one of the best in Shropshire.
He said: "We are absolutely delighted to get the grant. It is great news for the town. It will help improve even more facilities for the younger generation.
"The next step is we have a meeting on Thursday to agree to start the tender process for the new skateboard park.
"We would like to form a users group to help design the skateboard park. Anyone interested should get in touch with me or Julie Jones, the town council clerk.
"We would like the group to talk to us and the builders to come up with a design.
"We will use the information from the questionnaire last year and will also invite people to come up with more ideas once we start the tender process."
A total of 80 per cent wanted to see a larger skate board park in the town, a town council questionnaire revealed earlier this year. Councillor Hughes said that he hoped the skate park could be built by the autumn. "It would be nice to get it built by the early autumn before the bad weather," he said.
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.
"I am delighted that thanks to the National Lottery we have been able to help so many clubs in the West Midlands."
