Seaham Town Park - Skateboard/BMX Facility
From Street to Park: A New Home for Seaham’s Riders
Wednesday 5th August, 2010 saw the official opening of the Seaham Town Park BMX/Skateboard Park. The Mayor of Seaham officially opened the facility and approximately one hundred youngsters were treated to demonstrations by professional skaters and BMX riders. They were then given an opportunity to try out the park for the first time and receive coaching from the professionals. Skaters and BMX riders jumped at the chance to be the first to try out the new £130,000 skate park.
The young people of Seaham worked alongside council officials and the Record RSS in-house skater and skate park designer, to create the ramps and other features. Working in partnership with Seaham Town Council, Record RSS were also able to use the results of a public consultation to design a skate facility offering the following:
- Surface suitable for Skate, BMX and all wheeled sports
- Smooth concrete, purpose built finish
- Unique design to Seaham
- A project for the community, assisted by the community
- No age limits
- Multi-level design for all abilities
- Designed to flow providing different lines around the entire area
Mike Foreman, Skater and Record RSS Lead Skate Designer said of the design: “It took only a few brainstorming sessions with the group to come to a conclusion but once we did I was just as excited as the group to see it coming to fruition, especially once it began construction. In December last year, we had our first meeting with the group then another three meetings over the next six months, it became quite clear that Seaham had a larger fraternity of bikers than any other discipline, making the overall design more transitioned as opposed to a skate/street plaza style design. This being the case we moved ahead with these ideas and ended on what we have in place today. The user group played a major part in the process so what you see today is pretty much what we came up with together.”
Mark Welsh, Town Clerk for Seaham Town Council added: “The BMX/Skateboard facility at Seaham Town Park has been a resounding success and will provide a great deal of enjoyment long into the future. The key to this has undoubtedly been the involvement of the children of Seaham throughout the development of the project which has ensured that we have delivered the kind of challenging facility they wanted.” |
