An entrepreneur has slated the lethargy of parish councils after his offers to provide them with a new skateboard park were rebuffed.

JD O’Brien, a former BBC Apprentice contestant from East Peckham, set up a community interest company called Concrete Wave with a view to helping villages build or renew their skateparks and provide other improved facilities for youngsters.

But after first achieving huge success in Swanley, where he was able to establish a £250,000 state-of-the-art skate park for the town council, he has been repeatedly frustrated by the attitude of other councils that at first showed interest, but then withdrew.

One was his home village of East Peckham.

Mr O’Brien, who had been successful in securing a £150,00 National Lottery grant towards the skate park at Swanley, offered to raise the £250,000 necessary to build a pump track and skateboard park for East Peckham on its extensive playing field behind the Jubilee Hall in Pippen Road.

The Olympic-standard skateboard park was going to be sited where there is currently an existing dirt-mound bike track, with the new pump track circling it.

A pump track is a multi-use track suitable for bikers, in-line skaters or scooter riders.

The parish council paid him a £5,000 fee to act as the facilitator.

At first, things went well, and by December of last year, Mr O’Brien had secured a £100,000 grant for the project from the FCC Communities Foundation.

But Mr O’Brien said: “I’d been working on the scheme for two years, then suddenly, for no reason, they just pulled the plug.

“There were always one or two people speaking against it. I’ve no idea why.

“Their clerk really understood the concept and was totally behind it but after she left they changed their minds.

“Skateboarding is now an Olympic sport and you would think they would see a new skateboard park as a positive thing for the village.”

Mr O’Brien, who has four children, aged 10, nine, six and 12 weeks, said: “There was lots of support for it in the village – the school was very much onside.

“A skateboard park and pump track can be a good family adventure, improving fitness and at no cost.

“By May, I had offers for all the money lined up – we were ready to rock and roll, if only the council had signed the papers – and then they just turned round and said no.”

The decision not to proceed with Mr O’Brien’s plan was taken at a special meeting of the parish council on May 31.

The meeting was attended by 10 residents who raised doubts about the scheme.

They were worried that the Olympic-standard skatepark that Mr O’Brien envisaged would be too good, and would bring in skateboarders from outside the village – adding “extra traffic, parking, rubbish, graffiti, broken glass and antisocial behaviour”.

There were also fears the council would be lumbered with an ongoing maintenance liability and that the money could be better spent on more of a “multi-user facility”.

At the conclusion, the council voted by eight votes to zero, with one abstention, not to proceed.

As a result, the £100,000 grant that Mr O’Brien had secured had to be returned to the funders.

Mr O’Brien said: “If they hadn’t constantly dragged their feet, it would be built by now – and it came with a 30-year guarantee.”

Mr O’Brien saw the skatepark as just the first part of a major improvement of facilities at the recreation field.

He also had ideas to add a circular footpath around the perimeter of the field to facilitate access in poor weather, add an extra tennis court, and move the children’s play area to the left-hand side of the entry road, which would have enabled an expansion of the car park.

Cllr Mark Williams is chairman of the parish council.

He said: “JD is a fantastic guy with great ideas. But what he came up with was not really what we wanted.

“We wanted something local kids could play on; it didn’t need to be to Olympic standard. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get him to switch from what he had in mind. We wanted an apple, and he insisted on giving us a pear.”

Cllr Williams said the village had not dropped the skateboard idea but was now doing its own research into how to get funding and the best design.

He said: “It’s going to come. It will just take up more time. We have a new clerk and several new councillors and it takes a while.

“It’s unfortunate that we had to hand the £100,000 grant back. But it was specific to that one scheme and couldn't be used toward anything else.”

Mr O’Brien subsequently turned his attention to nearby Paddock Wood Town Council, offering to replace its existing rather dilapidated skateboard park with a new one.

He also approached Edenbridge and other villages.

They just don’t want change

But the story was always the same. After initial interest, Mr O’Brien's ideas were dropped.

Nichola Reay, the clerk at Paddock Wood, said: “The council is still considering a replacement park, but we are looking to do it ourselves rather than use Mr O’Brien’s scheme.”

A deflated Mr O’Brien said: “It’s no good. I just can’t work with councils. They just don't want change.”

Mr O’Brien said perhaps he should have learned from a much earlier life lesson.

He said: “Many years ago I lived in Seal and actually joined the parish council there.

“I left after six months because I could not persuade them to put up Christmas lights for the village.

“After I left, I arranged the funding and organised the Christmas lights myself.”

He is now in the process of disbanding his CIC company.

He said: “You can’t keep banging your head against a brick wall.”