The SkateMCR petition calling on the Prime Minister to “Remove the Byelaws which ban skateboarding in Manchester’s City Centre” has gained over 217 signatures in only it’s first week!
Big thanks to everybody who has signed the petition so far. If you haven’t signed it yet, you know what to do!
The Government petition website says “we cannot respond to petitions of less than 200 people”. This means that they will hopefully respond to the petition soon.
We want to get over 1,000 signatures by the end of this year! So keep pestering your friends and families to sign the petition. Here’s the link: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SkateMCR/
Thomas “TJ” Dolan (also known as KREK) and Thomas Whitaker (also known as Mers) walk as free men today after 3 judges overturned their prison sentences.
After a busy campaign by their friends and families, accumulating over 2,800 supporters on FaceBook, Krek and Mers are out of prison.
The SkateMCR online petition to ask “the Prime Minister to Remove the Byelaws which ban skateboarding in Manchester’s City Centre” has gained over 150 signatures in only 2 days.
If you haven’t already signed the petition, CLICK HERE and sign up right away!
The Government only reply to petitions which achieve over 200 signatures, so we have some way to go, but we want this to achieve 1,000 signatures - why not?!
SkateMCR has set-up a petition on the Governments petition website asking the Prime Minister to Remove the Byelaws which ban skateboarding in Manchester’s City Centre.
Click here to go to the petition and add your name. Get your parents and siblings and friends and cousins to add their names too!
This is the blurb for the petition:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Remove the Byelaws which ban skateboarding in Manchester’s City Centre.
The Byelaws, introduced in 2001, prohibit skateboarding in Manchester’s City Centre and criminalizes young people who, by skateboarding, are doing something physically active, socially engaging, constructive and creative.
The Government want to reduce obesity, increase social inclusion, encourage “play” activities among young people and reduce youth offending rates. The Byelaws oppose all of these aims.
The Government won’t respond to a pettion with less than 200 signatories. So let’s get on it and make this petition huge. It depends on you telling everyone about it, so start emailing everyone this link: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SkateMCR/
Negotiating the half-pipes and bowls of the North’s skateparks, Tim, Carl, Johnny, Woody and Daz look a little out of place. At least 25 years older than most of their fellow skateboarders, they are the Middle Aged Shredders.
A new skate related video site has been launched by the same people who created FunnyOrDie.
ShredOrDie shows highlighted videos and allows users to upload their own. Tony Hawk is providing some of the featured video’s, like Will Ferrel helped launch FunnyOrDie.
Here’s footage from the eS Game Of SKATE from ShredOrDie:
There were 3 main things we discussed at the SkateMCR Open Meeting on Monday evening. They were:
plans for a 6-month removal of the byelaw banning skateboarding from Cathedral Gardens outside URBIS,
plans for a Manchester International Skateboard Festival,
and raising the profile and getting more people involved with the aims and campaigning of SkateMCR.
6-month removal of byelaw at Cathedral Gardens
Following the Public Meeting at URBIS, I met with Vaughan Allen from URBIS and Gary Ellis from City Co. They suggested the best way to get the byelaws removed would be to propose a 6-month trial at Cathedral Gardens. After that 6 months, we will then have evidence and figures about how it was (hopefully) successful - the public were safe and enjoyed it, crime did not increase, etc. etc.
It was suggested in the Open Meeting that there should be signs around Cathedral Gardens (maybe in place of the “No Skateboarding” signs) alerting the public to the fact that this is a skate-able area.
We also talked about time restrictions. During the meeting with Vaughan and Gary, they said that URBIS, The Triangle and the Cathedral would all be supportive of this idea, but Chethams School of Music have some issues. Since the building is the school and halls of residence, they would probably not want skateboarding after 8pm so their students can rest and sleep.
Somebody suggested that they don’t think the students would actually mind and that we should do a short questionairre outside the school one afternoon to guage what the students reaction would be.
I said that the 6-month trial would probably take place over the summer next year, maybe from March to September. Others disagreed and thought that if the trial was over the winter, there would be less public around meaning potential for fewer accidents and a more likely chance that the trial would be successful.
I will continue putting the proposal together with Vaughan Allen from URBIS and giving feedback about it’s contents through this website. If you have any comments, let us know, or we can’t include them!
Manchester International Skateboard Festival
I suggested the idea that the festival be based on the Manchester Jazz Festival where there are multiple locations around the City Centres set-up for skateboarding over 1 weekend. For example, there could be some transitions at St. Ann’s Sq., a street area at Piccadilly, a Vert ramp out side the Town Hall, and URBIS could be skated. There would be a big finale, perhaps at URBIS.
Pro teams will be invited to come and skate at each venue at set times outlined in a schedule which will be available to the public. One of the aims of the festival is to educate the public about skateboarding and the skate scene in manchester - to show that skateboarding is creative and fun, and that skateboarders aren’t yobs wanting to destroy everything and do crime, but that the skate scene is very tight, friendly and inclusive.
The point was made that whenever it is arranged for, it should not conflict with other skate events or people from around the country will not come and join in.
Another idea is to run the festival over 1 week with skate films being shown at the Cornerhouse each evening and to have skate related art exhibitions at URBIS and other galleries around the City Centre.
Someone suggested using the big screen at the triangle to cover the skate events. Curbsurfers were suggested to get involved to organise that.
If you have any ideas or comments on these ideas, let us know by leaving a comment below!
Raising the profile and involvement of SkateMCR
The point was made that some of the people in the meeting didn’t know it was happening until that afternoon! People suggested making fliers for each meeting so more people know what’s going on. I said that it was all on the website, and it was pointed out that few people look at the website. So we will make fliers with the web address of this site for each thing we do from now on.
Someone suggested doing a Trick Of The Week feature on this website to attract more people to keep coming back. I said I also do a regular Podcast interviewing skaters in Manchester and that will hopefully draw more people to the website.
The idea emerged of organising something every month which everybody can get excited about. Ideas were games of SKATE, a relay race around the City Centre, a best line competition and a film competition. These things can be organised quite quickly but will raise the profile of SkateMCR.
Another idea was to organise coaches to take people to different skate parks / spots and particularly to national skate events like War Of The Roses.
Also, I will set-up a petition on the Governments website to remove the byelaws in Manchester. Hopefully that will get more skaters involved and raise the profile of SkateMCR too.
The SkateMCR petition calling on the Prime Minister to “Remove the Byelaws which ban skateboarding in Manchester’s City Centre” has gained over 217 signatures in only it’s first week!
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