Skate park users at Stanley Park can skate all winter after development group raise funds for floodlights

Skateboarders and scooterists may soon be able to practice their sport during the dark winter months after a group of skaters raised funds to install some floodlights at a Blackpool skatepark.

The popular facility opened last May, after local skateboarders, Simon Bennet and Big Woody decided to convert a run-down area of Stanley Park into an attraction that now brings people in from across the country.

The concrete park is used by skaters, BMX riders and scooterists of all ages . And now - if plans are approved by the council – they will soon be able to practice their sport on those dark winter evenings.

Woody, who set up Stanley Park Skate Park Development Group with Simon, said: "As soon as we get into winter we start losing light at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, the lighting will be the difference between people using it or not.”

Simon added: “It gives everybody a chance, you get home from school, college or work you can still get out and have a skate.”

The group raised the funds to install six solar lighting columns, each eight metres high.

Part of the funding includes a £10,000 grant from the Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner.

They added: “It will really improve the safety of the park. No-one wants to hang around somewhere dark at night. There are people about that shouldn’t be. If you put some lights on it keeps those people away.”

The purpose-built park contains stairs, ledges, rails, curbs, quarter pipes as well as a mini ramp – with obstacles for both novice and expert riders.

Although the park was vandalised with graffiti soon after it opened, Simon and Woody say most of the users take pride in the facility and keep it clean and tidy.

"The fact that it’s used by true skatepark users means that antisocial behaviour is at a minimum but to increase the possibility of it being used just keeps it that way.”

What does the planning application say for the Stanley Park skatepark lighting?

Architects Cassidy and Ashton, which has submitted a design brief for the scheme, says the investment will make the site more secure, particularly in the winter months, and complete the recent refurbishment.

Documents submitted with the planning application, say: “The proposed scheme seeks the installation of six solar lighting columns along the boundary of the skate park, to provide illumination during the darker, winter evenings and allow the safe and secure continued operations of the skate park, and assist in the prevention of anti-social behaviour.”

The lights would only be operational in the dark evenings so are not considered detrimental to the heritage of the park. Nearby netball courts are already floodlit in winter.

The application says: “Therefore, the works proposed have been designed to have as little impact upon the conservation area and registered park and garden as possible, whilst providing the necessary works to improve the safety and security of the site.

“Given the nature of the proposals, it is not considered that the works would affect views into and out of, or affecting the setting of, the identified heritage assets. “