 |  | Tucked behind the leisure centre in Bridgefoot is one of Stratford’s best-kept secrets – its monster wooden skate park.
With an 11-foot vert, 6-foot spine, loads of quarter pipes and boxes, the skate park is a bit of a beast, but like the Titanic, it’s slowly sinking!
It’s one of the only wooden parks in the area and floods every time the local rivers do. But don’t let that put you off. If you’re into big ramps and retro styling, this is your place.
|  | Put your hands up if you like the park! |
Click on the image at the top of this page to launch a 360 view of the park.
It was opened in 1998, so is pretty old as our parks go, but has been maintained since. In 2003 a number of summer events there raised money for two new ramps.
There are also big plans to bring it right up-to-date, using concrete to replace the timber and making it fit a bit better into its environment.
|  | Riding the ramps |
Cyril Bennis, the ex-mayor who first campaigned to get the park built, is still fighting its corner.
He said: “We want to move the park into the next century and as such it’s a very exciting project. It’s amazing how the sport has moved on.
"It’s an extraordinary sport and it’s important we do what we can to focus on young people in the area.”
He is currently in discussion with the local authorities about permission and funding for developments. I spoke to Pete Owen at Stratford District Council, who said the park’s site causes problems for development.
He said: “We’re very keen to improve the site, but it’s difficult because it’s on a floodplain.
|  | In-liners chilling at the park |
At the moment the wooded ramps all fill with water when it floods and this causes great damage.
"The site can’t have any more volume because of this, so growth in size is restricted. We’ve very proud of the skate park though and think it’s really important to have these facilities.”
So, hopefully we’ll have good news on the skatepark plans in the coming months. For now, just ride it and watch out for splinters…
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