Urgent support needed for indoor skateparks to prevent mass closures

Skateboard England have issued an urgent call for central Government to work with local

authorities to speed up the release of business support grants and encourage landlords to

recognize the impact of COVID-19 and work more flexibly with skateboard and BMX parks to

ensure their survival.

There are approximately 75 indoor skateboard and BMX parks in the UK delivering sport and

physical activity opportunities to over 1 million children and teenagers a week through

skateboarding, BMX and scooting. The vast majority are charities, community led

organisations and not-for-profit businesses, working to very tight budgets and being reliant

on daily entry fees and grant funding to operate. The Coronavirus lockdown has meant that

these parks are currently receiving no income.

Whilst the grant support announced by Government is a hugely welcome lifeline, it is

currently taking too long for those grants to be received by the skateparks from local

authorities. Anecdotally, one skatepark operator was told yesterday that over 3,000

applications had been received by their local authority and that they could only process 170

a week. This could mean that by the time the grant is approved and received, that skatepark

and many other businesses in that area will not have survived and will have already closed.

Many of these skateboard and BMX parks are involved in providing vital social impact,

mental health programmes and education services to vulnerable, high risk children from

different parts of the community. They also keep 1,000's of children active, helping to

reduce child obesity. Without immediate financial support, many skateparks could have to

close permanently within the next 3 to 4 weeks.

For example, in addition to providing skateboarding, BMX and scooting opportunities,

OnBoard in Sheffield runs alternative provision for vulnerable children from across the city

as well as several community projects which positively impact hundreds of people a week.

Owner, Amy Cooper said, "I’ll be honest the extremely sad part of this is, as yet we’ve had

no financial support or help from the city council at all. We are struggling now and will be

struggling to re-open in the future with our mounting debt. We've not heard anything in

regard to the leisure grant even though I phone everyday. I’ve put in a funding bid to

‘Emergency Covid Fund’ to support the running costs of our building but not heard anything

yet either.

This experience is mirrored across the country. Lucy Adams, Chair of Skateboard England,

said: "Many skateparks are faced with the harsh reality of no income for a long period and

without immediate financial support, face closure. This would be devastating to their local

communities. Many skateparks are working with vulnerable children as alternative

education centres and running community projects, such as providing food to disadvantaged

families and running initiatives to reduce food waste.

"We know from our discussions with skatepark operators that the grants need to be

released from local authorities much quicker and landlords need to be more understanding,

otherwise we face wholescale closures of skateparks across the country. This is why we need

crucial action and support from Government at this time.

"The call has also been backed by British Cycling. Andy Farr, British Cycling’s Head of

Business Planning & Transformation, said: "The Government support and sector-specific

support from Sport England is hugely appreciated and absolutely essential to the survival of

a large number of our facility providers, including skateboard and BMX park operators.

However, short-term cashflow is causing significant problems across the sector and we

would urge local authorities and landlords to work with us and our operating partners to

ensure we can sustain their businesses and be in a position to support all of the young

people who benefit from these parks, once we are able to resume activity."

●ENDS-

For further information, please contact:

Neil Ellis

nei@skateboard-england.org

0790 5353944

25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only