Some Good News

Hornsea Skate Park Review User Group Chairman’s Notes for Town Council Meeting 20^th November 2017   With all large projects the easy bits are the engineering and planning – the difficulty comes with securing the capital to make things happen.  However, at the 11^th hour the funding seems to have come together and all involved have helped to make this happen.  Everything is now in place:

• a Project Manager has been appointed
• the site is approved
• materials of construction agreed
• contractors have been chosen
• finances are confirmed.

There is however one potential problem, this relates to a matched funding grant of £50,000 which is only valid until the end of March 2018.  If we fail to complete before this date the £50,000 will be lost and the project will be at risk.  A meeting has been organised with the Project Manager to explore the possibility of building a concrete skate park during the winter months and I will report his views to the next meeting. In the meantime we must adopt a ‘can do’ attitude, assume a positive outcome and I want to thank the many people who have helped to achieve this result.  Whilst it has been my name attached to the scheme we have only succeeded because of work by others; mentioned below are some of those who have contributed the most.

• We have only been able to achieve this result by working closely with Joanna, the Town Clerk; it is because of her enormous influence that we have got so far.
• Many others have also provided indispensable help and are not listed in order of importance but please allow me to say thank you to some of them:
• Project manager, Keith, who has used his professional experience as a Chartered Engineer to guide the project. This work also included a thorough survey of Hall Garth Park.
• Our Ward Councillors, both of whom have used their authority to obtain the funding from our principle benefactor.
• Paul, who I first met as a member of the original User Group in 2000 and who is now a professional skateboarder, has been instrumental in obtaining the matched funding This £50,000 has only been offered because of his help, experience and expertise.
• David was one of three lads who originally asked me in 2000 if I could help them get a skate park. He, along with Paul, was a great help with the original facility and (like Paul) has returned to help with the replacement. It is a privilege to have these two young men on the current team.
• Lorraine who, as a parent member of the current User Group, oiled the wheels at Tesco and was a great help in obtaining the first grant for £5,000. The opening contribution is always important because it gives confidence and ‘pump primes’ the funding system.

  There are many others who have helped us get to the current position and I would like to thank all concerned and to say how pleased I have been to watch my teenage friends from 2000 grow into commercially active pillars of our society.  Hopefully we can give the current teenagers the same opportunity?   Now that we have confirmation of the ‘S106, Commuted Sums grant’ it is possible to continue with work to award the skate park contracts.  Currently our Project Manager, Keith, is working hard to complete negotiations with the successful tenderer, who has now formed a partnership and has merged with a company called Canvas Spaces Ltd.  Clarity of tender ownership and due diligence checks are being undertaken to complete the formal award of the main project works to the partnership.   The current situation is:

• the original contractor Wheelscape is negotiating to transfer the IP (Intellectual Property) of the former business to the new partnership called Canvas Space Ltd. Discussions between Keith and the Partnership are progressing, documents exchanged and discussions are continuing.
• when the above is completed our Project Manager will be able to advise on the placing of an order on Canvas Space to proceed with the redevelopment of the Hornsea Skate Park.
• Keith has had additional negotiations with L. & K Warcup Construction Ltd, the Enabling Works contractor, to ensure they are able to honour their tender and have the availability to carry out the site clearance and preparatory works. This has been confirmed and we are planning to start this work in the New Year.
• when Canvas Space Ltd has completed the legal aspects of the merger satisfactorily they are planning a start on the main skate park construction work in mid-February. A target completion date, weather permitting, is anticipated by the end of March 2018.

Issued by Angus Robinson, Chairman of the Skate Park User Group 18^th November 2017