by Nicola Forman

Dozens of youngsters descended on council offices to demand help to keep their skate park open.

The users and staff of Unreal Skate Park presented a petition of more than 1,000 signatures to Swale Borough councillor Gerry Lewin (Con) at the offices in East Street.

The popular skate park based at the Trinity Trading Estate in Sittingbourne faces closure if the owners don’t get the funding they need.

It costs £20,000 to run the park for a year and they are six months behind on the rent.

Owner Jenny Bishop has been running the park for 10 years and says they have £200 left.
She said: “We can’t pay the rent, we can’t pay the bills, we have nothing left.
“I’ve been applying for grants, applying for funding and no one will help us.
“We have Olympic standard skaters here but they can’t go any further because they’ve got nowhere to go.”

“I tell the children that if they work hard they reap the benefits when they’re older. But the message they are getting is work hard and get nothing.”

Cllr Lewin said he was pleased to receive the petition.
He said: “The petition has been passed to the relevant officer, who will now write a report that will be considered at the next most relevant meeting of the councillors.

“There are a particular set of circumstances here that need careful consideration – most notably that we do not run the skate park. We will look closely at the situation and we will see what can be done.”