Brighton skate park funded with Olympic legacy grant
An Olympic legacy grant of £150,000 will go towards the cost of the new skate park being built at The Level in Brighton.
The grant from Sport England was announced yesterday as work started to build the £400,000 skate park.
Sport England has been granting money through its “Inspired Facilities” fund as part of a £150 million legacy programme called Places People Play.
The rest of the money has come from Brighton and Hove City Council funds, grants, including £50,000 from the Veolia Environmental Trust, and money from property developers.
The sunken skate park is being built from polished concrete by Freestyle Skateparks in what was previously open space in the northern half of The Level.
The company worked with the Brighton and Hove Skateparks Association to come up with a design aimed at all ages and abilities.
An artist’s impression of how The Level will look
The proposal to move the location of the skate park from the southern end of The Level to the northern end prompted a campaign among people living in the area.
The work is part of a wider makeover for The Level which has separate funding of £2.2 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund.
Councillor Pete West, chairman of the council’s Environment and Sustainability Committee, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured the final funding for the skate park.
“With work starting this week the timing couldn’t be better.
“The skate park will form an integral part of the restoration of the park as well as providing substantially improved facilities for skaters of all ages and abilities.
“There has been a skate ramp at The Level since the 1970s so it is part of the park’s heritage but the old facilities have been in poor condition for many years and needed replacing.
“The sunken nature of the skate park means we will retain the open character of the northern part of The Level and keep its historic layout.”
He added that lighting, seating, bins, cycle racks and signs would also be installed and a landscaped boundary with insect friendly and drought tolerant planting would be created.
Sport England chairman Richard Lewis said: “This National Lottery investment is helping us deliver a lasting sporting legacy in Brighton and Hove from last year’s successful Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“With so many clubs in the south having benefited from this fund already and building on the success of last summer, this is the legacy people want for their local community.”
The Level Skate Park is one of 310 projects across England to receiving lottery investment from the third round of the Inspired Facilities fund.
More than 1,000 grants have been overall so far and more grants are scheduled in two further rounds of funding.
I am the Chairman of the Lichfield Skatepark Association and we have been trying for nearly 10 years to have a proper skatepark built in Lichfield. We are impressed by your success and look forward to learning about your opening day. We also hope that Sport England and Veolia will contribute to the cost of our skatepark. Although we have planning permission for a skatepark of about 1,500 m² the District Council Officers prefer a small skatepark 1/3 the size so we still need to persuade the Council Members to support our project. Any help to achieving this would be greatly appreciated.