Skate Parks

Press Release Kilkenny People, Week Ending 11/11/05

Funding Not an Issue for Proposed Skatepark- Noonan

A statement from Environment Minister Dick Roche that Kilkenny had ‘missed the boat’ in relation to funding for a skate park facility should not be of concern to the city’s substantial and growing group of skate boarders. That’s the view of Green Party Councillor Malcolm Noonan who initiated a feasibility study for the facility which is now being undertaken. ‘While there is disappointment that we missed out on the current round of Department funding, the Minister has assured us that an application will be looked on favourably next year when we have a detailed plan in place to submit’ he stated.

‘Its vitally important that we get this right, with proper consultation, an identified site and quality design, that is why I felt a feasibility study was the logical first step. The skate park in Waterford failed because of lack of consultation with the users and I don’t agree with the Minister in his belief that the study wasn’t necessary because of the many national and international examples of best practice. In any planning process, participative consultation is essential to providing the best possible solutions, this is a site specific study relevant only to Kilkenny and must be looked at in that context’ stated Cllr Noonan.

Cllr Noonan believes that Borough Council Members are speaking as a collective in their desire to see a skate park facility realised as soon as is practicable and that funding is not an issue in this case because of commitments made in the past to fund such a project. ‘We hear a lot lately about infrastructural deficits in the economy, but this is a vital social infrastructural deficit and one component of many in tackling the root cause of anti social behaviour, namely boredom and lack of adequate facilities for our young people, action not ASBO’s is required if we are to make a meaningful commitment to our youth, he stated.

Cllr Noonan will be calling for the establishment of a cross party committee within the Borough Council to oversee such a project and to work with all the relevant stakeholders in achieving a practical, realistic solution to this issue. ‘I would urge all involved in the sport to engage in the consultation in a positive manner and to look at organising themselves as a structured, recognised lobby group for the long term development of the activity in Kilkenny. I was recently informed by a friend about approaches made to the then Corporation for a skate park twenty five years ago! A damning indictment surely of our inaction towards investment in the well being of our young people’ concluded Cllr Noonan.