A new skate park will be built in Southend town centre in a bid to get nuisance youths off the streets.
The plans - spearheaded by James Courtenay, councillor responsible for children and learning - have been five years in the making.
Wait, what? I thought the Terrible Tory Cuts had left gaping holes in the council's budget?
Skaters and bikers currently use a makeshift park outside Southend Victoria station, on the corner of Victoria Avenue, and Queensway, but Mr Courtenay wants to give them a permanent base.
No, it's not 'a makeshift park' at all! It's just
the pavement. Hence why the council spent yet more money
trying to discourage them with new flowerbeds.
“When I joined the council in 2012 I went out on lots of visits, I talked to children and young adults and social workers of youth offenders.
“I also spoke to the youth council and I asked everyone what they wanted. The idea for a skate park came up. There are a lot of skaters that use the area outside Southend Victoria as a makeshift skating park but they need an official park.
“I had a lot of resistance to the idea and there was an argument that there were already facilities in Leigh and Shoebury but the point was that if you couldn’t drive, you couldn’t get to those facilities.”
Well, they can get their parents to drive them. It's not like they are
working, is it?
The council has so far allocated £250,000 for the scheme, with plans to secure further grants.
FFS!
Ahhh the world saving "Skate parks" again.
ReplyDeleteThey did not work in the 80s, they did not work in the 2000s, WTF makes them think they will work NOW?
There are HUNDREDS of these things over housing estates all over Britain, and except for whore and crack dens, dog shit paradise, and rubbish dumping, they were never, and ARE never used!(Kirkby and Croxteth in Liverpool spring to mind.)
We have two here, within walking distance of Kaiserdamm (S/U Bahn station. now known as "ICC Nord") What happens? you can not move for these idiots in the station corridors, and the two purpose built ones are just drug dealing/jacking up, and dog shitting rubbish dumps, with a few crack whores thrown into the deal.
So, Furor, you have the good ones.
ReplyDeleteI just wish you could see the "skate-park" built in Shorehahm in West Sussex. It's syringe-city. And the 'police' turn a blind eye.
Isn't the term 'nuisance youths' tautology? At least in Southend, anyway.
ReplyDelete"They did not work in the 80s, they did not work in the 2000s, WTF makes them think they will work NOW?"
ReplyDeleteThe triumph of hope over experience? After all, it's not their money, is it?
"It's syringe-city. And the 'police' turn a blind eye."
Can't recall ever seeing anyone turn up to move on the ones outside Victoria Station either... :/
"Isn't the term 'nuisance youths' tautology? At least in Southend, anyway."
Heh! Spot on!