Lake Grounds residents surveyed on skate park

A SURVEY is being carried out to find out people's views about installing a skate park at Portishead Lake Grounds - despite the project already having planning permission. Councillor David Pasley, whose ward includes the Lake Grounds, has distributed a questionnaire to 120 homes around the beauty spot, canvassing residents opinions on plans to put a skate facility on land between the childrens' play area and boathouse. The move comes just days after Portishead Town Council backed plans by Portishead Skatepark Project (PSP) to ask North Somerset to lease it the land for the project. PSP was granted permission by a Government inspector to put a skate park on the site last year after it appealed a decision by North Somerset Council to refuse the planning application. Designs have been drawn up and all that is needed now is an agreement to lease the land. Mr Pasley is planning to hand the results of his survey to North Somerset Council ahead of it making a decision on whether to lease the land to PSP. Mr Pasley, who was one of only four town councillors who voted against supporting PSP's bid for a lease, said: "PSP claim it has consulted with residents and that there were not many objections to a skate park at the Lake Grounds. "But people living around the Lake Grounds do not feel they have been consulted on the matter and the vast majority of residents do not want a skate park at the site. "Most agree that a skate park facility is needed in Portishead, but say it should be at a different location. "It would be unfair to impose a skate park on a site where the majority of residents feel they would be adversely affected by it. "A number of residents feel it will attract noise and disturbance in the evenings and could be subject to vandal attacks, including graffiti, and eventually become an eyesore and spoil the existing surroundings." The need for a survey to assess the views of residents about a skate park at the Lake Grounds has been questioned by PSP members. They say that local residents were consulted as part of the planning application for the scheme, which attracted 450 comments of support and 31 against the proposals. PSP has also held consultations with local residents and park users at a special meeting the Lake Grounds, delivering hundreds of leaflets to local residents asking them to attend. PSP spokeswoman, Liese Stanley, said: "Everyone had an opportunity to voice their opinion when the planning application was submitted and people used this democratic process to have their say." PSP has considered 16 different sites across the town for the facility, including land at Bristol Road, a plot next to Parish Wharf Leisure Centre and Kilkenny Fields. The new skate park, which will cost an estimated £200,000, would measure about 30metres by 20 metres and would be sunk into the site and an earth bund created around it. A number of conditions will have to be met before the authority agrees to lease the section of land between the childrens' play area and the boathouse, including guarantees that the council will not have to pay for the long term management of the facility. PSP will also have to fund the cost of the building the skate park and for any removal of the facility and returning the land back to its original use. A small skate park was opened at Merlin Park in 2003 at a cost of £12,500, but as the popularity of the sport has soared so has the need for a bigger facility.