A campaign has been launched to create a new skate and bike park in Cockermouth.
Organised by mum of two Sarah Stephens – who hails from the town – the idea to set up an online campaign group came after she found her daughters felt safer learning to ride their bikes on skate and bike parks.
She said: “I have two young girls who are six and four and we were struggling to get them to ride their bikes and we went to the bike tracks in Silloth and Keswick and it gave them a safe space to do it in and it really got them enthused and they’re riding their bikes now.
“So I thought, well why can’t we have a park here? We’ve got lots of space around Cockermouth and lots of young people. We also hear about bits of anti-social behaviour with kids riding on bikes on pavements down the main street, so there’s obviously a lack of facilities for that kind of activity.”
After spotting a post on social media asking for ideas to be put to Cockermouth Town Council, Sarah decided to email the council with her thoughts on developing a new park and ended up pitching the idea to the council during one of its public meetings.
She said: “The town council are open to the idea and they did commit that if we could set up a group and get a committee going they would review land areas that they’ve got or that we could review them and see if there are any suitable areas within council ownership.
“Hopefully once Cumberland is established we will take it to them as well. Anyone who has any land in private ownership that they would like to put forward would also be helpful.
“I also did a quick poll in the Cockermouth Discussion Group on Facebook and had really positive responses and it wasn’t just from young people.
“On the back of that poll I had more and more people messaging me saying oh I’ve been trying to do this for over 40 years and people saying they’d been trying since the 80s.
“So it’s at least two generations worth of people who have been trying for this and not succeeding and it just feels like now is the time to do it.”
Sarah then went on to set up the campaign’s main page and group to bring supporters of the idea together.
She said: “The interest in skating and biking goes right through the age groups really. We enjoy watching the little ones giggling on swings and we’ve got multiple play parks in the area that are of interest to ages around nine to at a push 10 – but they grow into teenagers and young adults and we need to reflect that in the provisions that we have in the town and give them something to do.
“We can’t complain that they’re cluttering up streets and riding in the wrong places if we don’t cater to their needs.”
While the campaign is still in its early stages, its Facebook group has over 120 supporters and the main campaign page has a further 102 followers.
Sarah said: “We had a small campaign group meet up over the weekend and there were teenagers there who were saying they just wanted somewhere to ride and meet up with friends and not get in trouble.
“There’s no point in bringing up the idea that we have skateparks elsewhere like Workington because that doesn’t help these kids on a Tuesday evening or a Sunday afternoon.
“We can’t expect a group of 10 kids to get on a bus to Workington skate park with bikes – I’m not sure they’d even be allowed to take 10 bikes on a bus.”
While Sarah does not skate or bike herself she said she feels skaters and BMXers are often unfairly stereotyped.
She said: “Unfortunately, some people see bikers and skaters under stereotypes and it is totally unjust. Just because someone has got a few tattoos or purple hair or a few extra piercings it doesn’t mean they’re someone to worry about.
“There’s more and more interest in skating and biking, they’re becoming mainstream sports as they’re in the Olympics now and we have a lot of high profile skaters.
“There’s a whole group of people that don’t want to do rugby or football or organised activities, instead they want the freedom to be able to say its a nice evening, lets go and meet up with our mates and ride our bikes or skate.
“The park could also be designed so it’s accessible to disability users and that would be a real bonus.”
The campaign group is also starting the process of reaching out to other organised skatepark fundraising committees for advice and they are welcoming all support and knowledge as they start their journey.
Sarah added: “Lots and lots of people say that they really want this facility but it’s getting people to put themselves forward and say ‘here’s how I can help’ and any small involvement helps it doesn’t need to be big.
“Going forward we will be looking at things like who is responsible for insurance and we’ll need to do lots of fundraising and things like that
“But the more people we have involved the less everyone has to do, but the reality is without community engagement, support and involvement this just won’t happen because we’ve all got kids or families or work, we’ve all got lots of things going on in our lives and its a big project to move forward.”
You can join the Facebook campaign group here: Cockermouth Bike/Skate Park Supporters
