Central’s Carhartt Street Course Video
If you haven’t been to Central Skateparks new Carhartt Street Course, check this video to see what you’re missing!
Archive for July, 2007
ASBO At Projekts Video
Take a look at this great video, by Yujishimobay, of the ASBO Final Competition at Projekts Pump Cage.
Click here to see the winners of ASBO.
BBC Covers Public Meeting About Skateboarding
![Skateboarder [pic: Gregoire Chabrol]](http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/images/2007/07/27/skate_debate_203_203x152.jpg)
The BBC Manchester website has written an article about the Public Meeting about Skateboarding which took place on Tuesday night - The Skate Debate.
It includes a Poll asking whether you agree skateboarders should be able to skate in the City Centre after 6pm, so click here and vote!
The article, written by Richard Turner, is positive and highlights the fact that Councillor Pat Karney and the City Council are thinking about relaxing the byelaws:
“The skateboarders made some reasonable points. For instance, they asked: ‘can we skate outside Urbis after 6pm in the evening?’ It’s an option we’re going to look at.”
Central Skatepark Revamp Jam
| July 28, 2007 | ||
| 12:00 pm | to | 10:00 pm |
Central Skatepark are hosting their Revamp Jam, celebrating the new Carhartt Street Course they have built.
The Jam kicks off at midday on the 28th july and entry is £7 for the whole day. With plenty of sponsors, prizes, BBQ food, skateboarding and fun, it’ll be a great day!
Here are some pics of the new street course while they were still constructing it.
Report On Public Meeting About Skateboarding
I was encouraged and impressed that so many people came to the public meeting. There were well over 50 people who attended, the vast majority of whom were skateboarders. Guests who attended were Councillor Pat Karney, Gary Ellis from City Co. (formerly Manchester City Centre Management Company), Vaughan Allen (Chief executive of URBIS), Inspector Faz Zaman and Linda McCarthy (Community Safety Co-ordinator for the City Centre).
One of the frustrating debates was about the byelaws which ban skateboarding in Manchesters City Centre. Pat Karney explained that they were bought about in response to complaints about skateboarders in 2000 / 2001. He went on to apologise that the Council hadn’t consulted with skateboarders until now.
The complaints themselves became a big issue with skaters wanting to know how many complaints were made before the byelaws came into place and how many were actually about incidents with skateboarders. Pat Karney admitted he didn’t know and agreed that many of the complaints were probably due to anxiety rather than incidents.
Another issue about the complaints was that skaters felt they were being wrongly penalised by complaints about the other kids at URBIS. Skaters felt that they were being lumped in with the other kids at URBIS and it was pointed out that skaters were at URBIS to skate, which is a constructive activity. Inspector Faram said that while in plain clothes at URBIS, he had seen skateboarders getting drunk and being intimidating to others. He suggested that if skaters wanted to have a better chance at getting rid of the byelaws and to be seen as responsible, they need to report such crimes to the Police.
Many arguments were raised in support of getting rid of the byelaws, particularly outside URBIS at Cathedral Gardens. They included
the fact that skateboarders were being criminalised for a positive and very social activity,
that to allow skateboarders to skate in certain City Centre areas will make them safer since the more people who use public spaces the safer those spaces become, and
that skateboarders are in the majority respectful of pedestrians and other people using public spaces since they don’t want hassle or they won’t be able to skate.
It seemed that the guests understood the arguments and agreed with many, with Vaughan Allen saying that he wanted skaters to skate outside URBIS. But abolishing the byelaws immediately was an idea firmly ruled out by Pat. This caused a block in the debate which meant it could not go any further and left many skaters frustrated.
This is where it all becomes about politics. The City Council can’t be seen to u-turn on these byelaws since it will be an admission of a mistake, and they will lose votes. Pat suggested that the only way to get rid of the byelaws is to convince the other 95 Councillors about the benefits of skateboarding and the negative effect the skateboarding byelaws are having on the City. But I don’t think this will be enough. The Councillors will want to see that the public want the byelaws removed and that if they got rid of the byelaws, they will get more votes.
Another important issue raised at the meeting was the role of the Police. Pat Karney insisted that skateboarders shouldn’t blame the Police for any of the fines or ASBO’s, instead, they should blame the City Council since they decided to create the byelaws. Inspector Faram pointed out that Greater Manchester Police is apolitical and has no anti-skate attitude, they simply enforce the laws which the Government and City Council require them to.
When asked about more funding for skate facilities in Manchester, Pat Karney’s response was “Join the Queue!” He made it clear that skateboarders were in competition with everybody else in Manchester who wants more money for their ideas or needs.
By the end of the meeting it was clear that the next step is to form a group, including Pat Karney, Vaughan Allen, Gary Ellis, GMP and some skateboarders, to continue looking at these issues, particularly the byelaws and funding.
Finally, this is the video which was shown during the introduction to the meeting:
FalloPalooza Postponed
BAD NEWS: Unfortunately, due to Climate Chaos, FalloPalooza has been postponed until further notice. It will happen at some point in the next few weeks, but not today (21st July) since it is raining.
GOOD NEWS: The after-party is stil going ahead at Trof in Fallowfield tonight (21st July) with guest band Thrust featuring Rob Smith, Mark Kendrick and Eddie Belvedere!
Gasworks Being Boarded Off
The last few days has seen the beginning of the of the operation to board-up the Gasworks as part of the regeneration of the Central Spine area.
Ask Development are leading the development of the Central Spine area and are currently in Phase 1 - renovating the BT building. Stephen Cliff from Ask is meeting with me (Ben Gibbs) from SkateMCR and Joe Gavin - who is making a documentary about the Gasworks - next Monday.
I spoke to Simon Tugby, a Landscape Architect from Planit, at the Gasworks on Wednesday and he admitted that they won’t even start any design work for another 5 weeks at least.
Another man I spoke to named Gordon Blair said that they were boarding off the Gasworks by the end of July so that remedial work can be carried out on the ground before building work can begin. He also gave me a freephone consultation line which the public can phone to give their complaints or thoughts about the Central Spine developments: 0800 612 9657.
SkateMCR is determined to be involved in any designs and plans for the Gasworks, to make it a skateable spot and hopefully better than it currently is. The Gasworks has been skated for decades and we want skating to continue there for decades to come.
Skateboarding Public Meeting Press Release
24th July, 7pm, URBIS
PUBLIC MEETING ABOUT SKATEBOARDING IN MANCHESTER’S CITY CENTRE
Manchester’s skateboarders are meeting with the City Council and Greater Manchester Police among others to discuss skateboarding issues in the City Centre.
The public meeting, organised by SkateMCR, Manchester City Council and URBIS, will provide an opportunity for the authorities to hear directly from skateboarders about the current issues they face.
“The City Council has never consulted skateboarders in Manchester so we’re calling on all skateboarders from Manchester to come to this meeting to have their say about the future of skateboarding in the City Centre.” says Ben Gibbs from SkateMCR.
The meeting, on Tuesday 27th July at 7pm in the URBIS museum is open to the general public to come and listen to the issues and have their say too.
Confirmed guests are Councillor Pat Karney (Manchester City Council), Vaughan Allen (URBIS), Gary Ellis (City Co. formerly MCCMC), Ben Gibbs (SkateMCR) and the owners of Manchester’s skateboard shops.
Invited guests include Chief Superintendent Gerry Donnellan (GMP) and a representative from Street Warden Services.
Journalists, photographers and camera crews are welcome.
Central Skatepark Closed For Redesign
| July 18, 2007 | to | July 25, 2007 |
Central Skatepark has started building it’s Carhartt Street Course today. They have closed for the next week, watch this space or their website for when they reopen.
The new street course takes up most of the warehouse and replaces the ditch and the existing street area. The mini-ramp and half pipes will be replaced with a bowl eventually, but I think that will happen later. Take a look at the current plans for the Carhartt street course for more details:
Projekts Skate Video Premiere
| July 22, 2007 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 11:00 pm |
Projekts MCR premiere their first skate video on Sunday. “That’s Wat You Get”, filmed and edited by Sean Lomax, has been many months in the making and features many skaters from around Manchester.
The premiere begins at 6pm at the Projekts shop with a showing for under 18’s. It then moves on to Joshua Brooks for another showing and an after party until late.
Miss it - Miss out!
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