'At the skate park you are never on your own'

A "ragtag group of misfit" skaters is working to raise £10,000 for a skatepark in a Wiltshire town.

Corsham Skatepark Project Group has been working to replace the out-of-date facility on Valley Road since 2023, in the hope of encouraging a new generation of enthusiasts.

The £10,000 goal is the first step in securing the park, with Corsham Town Council agreeing to fund up to £175,000 of the £400,000 project. The rest, the group hopes, will be financed by grants.

"We're all completely different people - it's like a ragtag group of misfits that have all come together and created a good thing so far," said group member Jake Adams, 24, who has skated at the existing park since childhood.

Fellow group member Jaz Morse, 35, first started thinking about a new skate park for the town in 2021 - with her and her daughter petitioning residents to gauge interest in the scheme.

Built in 2006, the current skate park is made out of an outdated rough concrete and has a very different layout to modern parks.

With skateboarding appearing at the past two Olympic Games, Morse and Adams want to bring Corsham's skaters a facility that will boost participation in the sport.

"When I started this I didn't really realise it would mean so much to so many people, but everyone's got their own little story of when they skated, and when their kids skated," said Morse.

The group has spent the past few years working to raise the profile of the project, holding taster days and taking part in fundraising challenges to meet their initial £10,000 goal - which they are now more than halfway towards, with designs already drawn up by company Maverick Skateparks.

As well as helping local people excel in the sport, both Morse and Adams are passionate about building a new hub for people of all ages.

"Sometimes the hardest thing is being on your own, but at the skate park, you're never on your own," said Adams.

"You can turn up and you can make friends with the most diverse person to you [...] you just share one love. At the worst times in my life, it's brought me so much peace.

"I think a lot more people could benefit from the feeling that it gives you, the feeling of freedom and you just forget everything around you."

A spokesperson for Corsham Town Council said the campaign group had done a "fantastic" job of designing the skatepark, adding: "Most people seem to think that the Corsham skatepark might become a real destination for skaters in the area."

They added that full planning permission was being sought from Wiltshire Council, including an open consultation process, and said it was hoped that once the final design was complete and planning permission secured the group could approach national funding providers to plug the gap in funding.

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