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Council gives skatepark second hope

By Martin Chapman on Friday, 11th June 2004.

Haverhill Skatepark has been given a second chance, after being asked to approve the closure of the park. The full cabinet made the decision at their meeting on June 2nd.

Initally councillors had been asked to approve the sites closure after complaints of excessive noise from the site had been made to the council and Richard Spring MP.

Councillors however decided to ask council staff are to look at ways of cutting the noise made by skateboarders using the equipment at the skatepark. They did however except that there may be may be no alternative but closure.

At the meeting last week of St Edmundsbury's Cabinet details of an investigation into the decision to site the skatepark off Howe Road were made to councillors. The report concluded that planners had followed the correct processes, and that early problems with anti-social behaviour were being tackled.

However measurements of noise levels showed they were at unacceptably high levels, especially "impact noise", the thumps, bangs and clanking noises made as skateboarders used the equipment.

Members heard that that the skatepark has been enormously successful since it opened but nearby residents, led by Richard Spring MP had campaigned for the skatepark's closure, fears were expressed by Haverhill Town Council in a letter to Cabinet members about the possible damage and nuisance that will occur elsewhere in the town if it closed.

Councillors at the meeting expressed their sadness at the current situation regarding the skatepark and acknowledged the extreme popularity of the facility. They have pledged that should they be forced to close the site that the mobile skatepark be made as widely available as possible in Haverhil.

The Cabinet decided that council staff must " urgently explore the possibility of sound attenuation works to the skatepark". The idea is to pilot noise cutting measures on some of the equipment and, if successful, carry out more work on the rest.

They did emphasis that if these works did not reduce noise levels to those acceptable then they would have no choice but to approve the skateparks closure.

They also took the decision to look at the implications of providing alternative permanent sites in Haverhill, including the possibility of a number of smaller sites instead of one large site.

Cabinet member for Leisure and Sport, Cllr Terry Clements, said after the meeting: “It is incredibly disappointing to have to accept that we may need to close what has become such a popular facility in Haverhill. We will do all we can to see if there is any way in which the noise can be cut back, so the skatepark's neighbours don't have to live with the levels of noise being generated.."


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