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Take a look at the skatepark’s opening hours
• I USE the recently completed world class skateboard facility in Cantelowes Gardens, Camden Road, and would like to try to get the opening hours extended.
Due to some pressure from local residents, the Skatepark is only open from 11am, weekdays and weekends. The park is closed at 9pm. I, and many others, believe that 11am is too late an opening time, and that nearly half the day is gone by this point. I find it very difficult to believe that any Skatepark noise could be considered more disturbing than the noise generated by the traffic on Camden Road, whatever time of day. Potential disagreements aside, I would have thought that the benefits of providing excellent facilities in what is Camden's only designated Youth Park would far outweigh any minor negatives. Like everywhere else in the UK, Camden and Kentish Town need to be providing easily accessible free sports facilities for all residents, all of the time. The whole of society should to be encouraged to participate in physical activity as much as possible. Skateboarding can play a big part in this, and when there is the perfect facility already available, it seems ludicrous to me, and others, that access to it should be restricted. Working full-time rules out the majority of the Skatepark opening times, and for those with families it is made even more difficult. I would like to see the Skatepark open 24hrs, but understand that this wouldn't be possible, in terms of staffing and lighting. At very least it should be accessible from 9am at the weekends, and during school holidays.
Camden Council, and the Cantelocals, worked very hard to raise funding for the Skatepark over several years, but now its access is restricted and many find it difficult to find the time to skate it.
Before the introduction of Parks Security (to keep keen park users out before the gates are opened) I saw dads helping sons over the fence, mums lifting toddlers and bikes over, even a parent with a broken leg in plaster determined to spend a glorious sunny morning with his two sons at the Skatepark. This surely is testament to how important the facility is to all local residents and visitors alike. Cantelowes Gardens has had a bad reputation in the past, but its regeneration has certainly improved the situation, with any trouble at a minimum. When open, the Skatepark is so popular that it always busy with people of all ages; this was one of the main aims in improving the whole park. There has been a Skatepark in Cantelowes Gardens since the 1970s, it is not a new addition; the rules of restricted access are the only addition.
JON SHELDON
Lower Clapton Road, E5
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