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Skatepark is finally gone :) - Peter (12th Sep 2023 - 18:03:37) Finally someone seen sense to rip that death trap down. That’s a few less of our 10 year old kids being introduced to their first joint now with that non skating scum magnet finally gone. Let’s hope the council are not going to spank £150k of your money in times like these replacing it only for the new one to be covered in p**s, broken booze bottles and police visits in its first week A crew attended today an removed half of it including the railings around the outside, hopefully they clear the bike park and other deformed metal thing at the side (objects unidentifiable due fo the fact they got instantly destroyed by vandals as soon as they got put in) tomorrow.

Re: Skatepark is finally gone :) - Jack (12th Sep 2023 - 21:40:34) Peter first and foremost you’re an idiot. How can you sit and applaud the removal of a public amenity which a lot of the young kids of Liphook have really enjoyed. It would have been far better had the equipment been repaired and maintained correctly and preventing the dismantling altogether. I do hope that the so called drug dealers and users you refer to set up camp outside your house it would be called karma!

Re: Skatepark is finally gone :) - Pete (13th Sep 2023 - 08:13:12) Peter- Such a vehement diatribe about a set of inanimate objects. The problem is not, was not and never would have been the skate park. State underinvestment in local amenities, an education system that has neither the time or funding for social education, an expectation from parents that the schools will socially educate their child so they don't have to and an overriding sense of selfishness and entitlement from a large section of society are the things you should really be concerned about.

Re: Skatepark is finally gone :) - Sam (13th Sep 2023 - 08:31:38) The skatepark has been locked and closed for over a year with bits of metal hanging out of it, during all that time not one post about reopening or repairing it. Now people like Jack crawl out of the woodwork when it’s gone to grab their opportunity to have a go. If you actually cared about the skatepark Jack where was your voice over the last year as it sat there rusting with a padlock on the gate? The place was a haven for dodgy people interfering with a very limited number of proper users, and yes Peter sounds happy, perhaps he was unfortunate enough to live close to it and knows more about it that most, but he does have a point. Someone destroyed it and destroyed everything around, there wasn’t a day I ever walked past it that it wasn’t covered in broken bottles, booze tins and drug paraphernalia. So I think the message is.. if the community spend 50k plus building you something then why couldn’t its users respect it? And given they clearly have not respected it why should the community pay for another one ? Am sad a facility is gone, but am not sad that specific facility is gone and we definitely shouldn’t be spending huge sums replacing it for it to be destroyed and become a new hub of bad behaviours. The location of the back Rec was all wrong for a start, hidden and out of site assists bad behaviour.

Re: Skatepark is finally gone :) - John (13th Sep 2023 - 08:43:38) Pete, if state underinvestment is the problem then 1. Why did most people vote for them? 2. Would state investment have solved the social problems occurring at that location? Cameras, fences, locking up in the evening? Fact is some people frequently attended it without a skateboard and behaved very disrespectfully to the equipment, the users, and the neighbours. So with that element it’s a good thing it’s gone mostly as it was in its last years a hazard, even though it was locked for the last few years kids just jumped the fence

Re: Skatepark is finally gone :) - Local (13th Sep 2023 - 09:34:56) It had to go, as it was an eye-sore and never properly constructed or managed. Interesting that other areas have invested in new purpose-built skateparks and they are (a) being used, (b) are well looked after by the people who use them, and (c) are not drug-dens. To Peter and the other's who are pleased the Liphook skate-park has gone - you have overlooked one point. Any anti-social behaviour that might exist will continue in the same area, as it was unconnected to the equipment and was more to do with the area being out of sight generally. BTW statistics and anedoctal evidence suggests the majority of drug-users in towns like Liphook are adults of working and middle age.

Re: Skatepark is finally gone :) - Sam (13th Sep 2023 - 10:54:22) Local is correct drugs users are young adults, I don't think any of the other posters suggested it was the 10 year olds doing it, more so that both users and legit skaters are in the same area thus the influence is there. And yes anti social behavior will continue elsewhere but I disagree that so much anti social behavior will still occur in that location now its gone, the place was a hangout magnet to them especially when it rained as they had cover sitting under it. With it gone they will head off to another outdoor seat somewhere else. If you count the average physical evidence of broken bottles etc. over the time it existed to the future without it you will find that anti social behavior was completely directly connected to specifically the skatepark location. Few of them stand in the middle of the football field or walk off into the forest to do it, the skatepark offered concealment, cover from the elements, exit routes, and somewhere to sit and play, it was a focus zone, they will move onto the chair now outside the library as they still get those elements with a bit of cover from the tree. It wasn't managed, it wasn't locked up and the back rec is just entirely the wrong place for it, 4 possible ways to exit, back of library, front of library, down the path to the main rec or out to Hazelmere road but most of all very little passing foot traffic and no cars to spot what they are up too. You wouldn't see them smoking if the skatepark was on the green next to Sainsburys with a 100 people walking or driving past every hour in direct sight as they would be found out and in for a set of questions from their parents as soon as they arrived home as someone whom knows them would have spotted them with a beer or worse.

Re: Skatepark is finally gone :) - Joe (13th Sep 2023 - 14:56:12) I agree the site was not good for the skatepark but I have seen young males perhaps aged 13- 16 sniffing the soda syphon canisters and taking drugs both in the recreation ground and also Radford park. I have also seen boys with Bohunt blazers on meeting drug dealers in Radford Park car park. Also I remember all the playground equipment and benches vandalised in both locations. No matter what facilities were put in place for teenagers in Liphook seems as if they would not be appreciated.

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