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A LOCAL councillor expressed her frustration at the lack of progress of constructing a skateboard park for young people, at the meeting of Tralee Municipal District of Kerry County Council on Monday morning.
Cllr Toireasa Ferris was asking that an estimate would be prepared for the provision of a skate board park at the Wetlands.
She said the issue of providing a skate park facility had been going on for 12 years and Cllr Pa Daly had recently provided photos of a very basic skate park in France which it could be modelled on.
She said the equipment would cost no more than €3,000 and it was hoped to get a start on it to provide this facility for teenagers.
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In reply, the Council said the insurance risks for publicly provided skate-parks must be considered when choosing and designing the optimum site. Fear of anti-social behaviour by nearby residents/businesses is another important consideration.
A skate-park has not been considered for the Wetlands previously. A number of other issues such as location on the site, drainage, noise, accessibility and security, as well as insurance costs, development costs and sources of funding will require full examination.
This will be carried out by the Tourism Unit in conjunction with the Capital Infrastructure Unit. A report will be prepared for Council once all the issues are clarified.
Councillors might take the opportunity of the re-development of the “Denny site” to incorporate a skate park there. With access to the towns facilities it’s an ideal site, with adequate nearby parking also.
I wonder is the issue of “Anti social behavior” considered when (re)-developing GAA sites. Obviously a biased attitude to begin with.
Consider that the people that will use the facility are the product of a family,
possibly yours!
Diversity makes for a better society.
I think that a skatepark in Tralee is something we need in our town. Teens have nowhere to go and hang out besides a football pitch. I think that by building a skatepark it will keep a lot of teens away from drink and drugs, being a teenager myself I see this problem everyday.
In my opinion I think it’s being going on too long we need to start now !!!! It will be great for us to have somewhere to skate because as a skater myself from Tralee I hate getting kicked out from places and the workers do Aswell
I started skating a few months ago me and my 4 friends all started and we love it so much and we all wondered if there was a skate park and we found out there were plans to make one I may only be skateing for a few months but I love it so much and for me to be able to express my love for skateboarding I can’t because there is no where to do tricks or even the ground wouldn’t be good enough to skate on we need one now!!! And all the skaters in Tralee will do our best to make this happen and we have but the council won’t help us do it this would be great because there isint a lot of things to do I tralee for teenagers which sucks because since is so boring teenagers turn to drink and drugs