THE project to build a dedicated skatepark for Tavistock?s youngsters has been thrown into jeopardy, just days before work was to begin. Youth group Taviskate fundraised for the park in Benson Meadow for many years and have worked hard with other groups and organisations to get the project off the ground. Drainage and tarmacing work was finally due to get under way last Monday ? but on the previous Friday, town council staff learned that residents in the area had submitted last-minute concerns about noise disturbance. Now vital grant money to get the project off the ground could be in danger. The whole scheme hangs in the balance, pending a specialist report regarding noise levels. Town clerk Roger Howard said: ?We daren?t do anything until we have this report. If it?s not positive, then I think we are in big trouble, which is a huge shame because the town council did everything it could to get it going.? Col Howard said the council was hoping the report would prove noise from the skatepark was not a problem, bearing in mind ambient noise from the road and industrial estate, plus the fact the skaters? ramp was due to be modified to muffle sounds further. He said the park could not be moved further up Benson Meadow because it would fall into a 100-year flood plain area. The only other option would be to move it back into the Meadows, near where the skate ramp was originally situated. ?My councillors are happy in principle to move the skatepark to the Meadows, but it?s a shame because we wanted to have the kids all in the same area, with the new youth café in Pixon Lane and Youthwize that?s already there,? he said. ?But if we do have to move it, it?s going to take the scheme beyond March 31st, when they have to have spent their grant money.? Richard Porter, chairman of Taviskate, said the group stood to lose £20,000 if the project was delayed for too long. ?We are very worried. If the report is okay, everything will be fine, but if it?s not, we are pretty stuck ? basically the whole thing could fall through,? he said. David Inman, deputy chief executive at West Devon Borough Council which commissioned the environmental report, said it was best to ?double check? noise levels at the proposed site of the skatepark, in the light of concern recently expressed by residents in the area. ?Grants are in place to facilitate the scheme and that is a concern, but we just need to establish that there is going to be no noise nuisance. ?We are very mindful of the grant situation and we will seek to do the report as quickly as is humanly possible.? Mr Inman hoped the report could be completed within the next week or so.
