Swansea plans for new generation of skate facilities take a step forward

More than £1m has been set aside for new equipment to help boost sports that are growing in popularity across the city.

And now the council is bringing in fresh expertise to help it develop its plans for the community facilities skate and BMX fans would like to see.

Robert Francis-Davies, Cabinet Member for Investment, Regeneration and Tourism said: “We want to create among the best community network of skate, BMX and wheeled sports facilities of any local authority in Wales.

“And we’re setting out to bring in specialists to work with young people and our well-established skate and BMX communities to help make the dream a reality.

“Swansea Council played a significant role in creating the brilliant new skate park in Mumbles that has been such a massive success. Now we want to upgrade our network of skate and BMX facilities around Swansea, working with experts in the field so that what we get is value for money and what young people will be inspired to use.”

Cllr Francis-Davies said: “Feedback from families on our post-pandemic investment in a new generation of play areas across the city has been hugely positive and is great for the health and wellbeing of children and their families.

“We are now advertising for experienced skate and BMX advisors to support our vision to achieve the same success story for the many thousands of skate fans across the city.

“The last Olympic Games saw a surge in interest in skate and BMX and next year’s event we’re sure it’ll do the same. Who knows, in future years there may be competitors representing their country who first found their balance at one of our Swansea venues.”

Swansea Council has advertised it’s ambition to recruit more expertise to help deliver its skate and BMX vision on the Sell2Wales procurement site. The council know there are a lot of experts in this field and it would welcome submissions from anyone who fits the criteria in the advert.

The advert highlights how there is already a network of community skate and BMX facilities around the city, including in Victoria Park, Loughor, Gorseinon, Morriston and Townhill.

Current facilities are well-used and some have been upgraded recently, while others require further investment. But the advisors the council wants to bring in will bring experience from other successful skate projects elsewhere so that provision in Swansea is transformed in coming years.

Cllr Francis-Davies said: “Whoever is chosen will support our ambition to provide top-class new facilities. Their proposals will be inspired by close consultation with our local skate and BMX communities and young people.

“Support for the Mumbles Skate Park, which we enabled the local community council to deliver by leasing the land that it stands on, demonstrates the enthusiasm and energy there is in the local skate community.

“The experts we’ll appoint to deliver the next generation of skate facilities in Swansea will help harness that dedication so that whether it’s for fun, wellbeing or because they have aspirations of Olympic greatness, young people in Swansea will have somewhere to express themselves.”