WORK has finally started on the long-awaited skate and bike park in Okehampton ? and the exciting new facility should be open in time for the Easter holidays.
The riverside park, opposite Brayhams Terrace, will provide a flat area, half-pipe and street course for skateboarders and in-line skaters.
There will also be a BMX or bike track with a variety of different terrain features like humps, platforms and corners, which will be suitable for the skilled and not so-skilled riders.
The work is being carried out by Ross Campbell Contractors and Aggregate.
Stuart Lord, manager of OCRA, said the new park was a great example of the community working hard to achieve a goal.
Stuart said: ?For over five years the youngsters of Okehampton have expressed an interest in a bike and skate area ? skating, BMX and skateboarding have been consistently popular across a wide age range in the town.?
He said a youth appraisal survey revealed substantial support for such a scheme, but it was some time before a suitable site could be found.
Stuart said ?a great debt? was owned to the late Mr Wooldridge who held the covenant on the land near Brayhams.
Once agreement had been reached on the site, the search for funders began in earnest and thanks to the Non Ecclesiastical Trust, Awards for All, West Devon Borough Council, Mid Devon Primary Care Trust, Community Safety Partnership, Okehampton Town Council, the EX20 Lottery, Okehampton Youth Service, Teens to Twenties, Okehampton Round Table and OCRA, £28,000 was raised for the project which is expected to cost around £50,000 once it has finally been completed.
Stuart said the skate park, following the good news about the giant Lottery bid for the new sports complex in Okehampton, meant a great few months for OCRA and he paid tribute to the hard work put into the project by everyone involved.
?OCRA looks forward to a grand opening and to see all the numerous people that have in any way played a park in the skating scene and this project ? it?s finally happened!?
The official opening of the skate park takes place at 5pm on April 9.