It’s taken several years, tens of thousands of pounds, hundreds of hours of hard work and a great deal of determination and shortly a top quality, world class skatepark will be unveiled soon in Castletown’s Poulsom Park.
The massive £190,000 investment means the town now caters for all ages.
The park already had a skatepark, but it was no longer fit for purpose, so in 2012 a group set about building a replacement.
’After legal advice was sought on fundraising I had to set up Castletown Parks Charity as a limited company. Without the help of Martin Katz, Brent Thomas, Steve Gorry and Kate Meechan this would not have happened.’
Jimmy, a very vocal advocate for improving facilities for young people, led the initiative and rallied support.
’Castletown Commissioners voted to pledge £50,000 to the project. £50,000 was pledged from the Manx Lottery Trust and CPC have raised around £90,000.’
The park is being built by Concreate Ltd from Scotland.
’These boys are serious skate boarders in their own right and watching them build the ramps is an art form,’ he said.
’This design is world class and I am over the moon with the final skatepark we are going to have. Skate boarding is now an Olympic sport and 11 year old English skateboard girl Sky Brown is going to set the world alight.
’With the island’s first indoor skatepark "The Shred House" having just opened young people who want to ride now finally have real opportunities.
’Frustratingly in the seven years I’ve been working on this there has been little change across the island.
’Castletown’s £50,000 capital loan was the first outside of the rich parishes in 30 years.
’I was working on this (improving facilities island wide) with Daphne Caine as children’s champion and then she was sacked.’
He continues to call for increased investment in young people island-wide and said: ’We have to provide free recreational facilities for the whole community.
’The skate park is phase one in Poulsom Park and the commissioners are now looking to raise money towards a state of the art replacement play park designed by Isle of Play.
’Finally young people in the south will have a quality facility where they can hang out and call their own.
’This is the biggest change for young people in the south with much more to come for the whole community in the future.’
He added: ’Raising the money was not easy with not being based in Douglas or a mainstream cause. Castletown is now a town for all and I’m very proud of what the current board of Castletown Commissioners have achieved so far.’