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Draft Skate And BMX Plan Released For Community Consultation

Latrobe City Council has released a document for community consultation intended to guide the improvement of skate and BMX facilities across the municipality.

By Latrobe City - 25th February 2009 - Back to News

Latrobe City mayor, Cr Lisa Price, said skating and BMX riding continue to be popular activities among young people and council considered it imperative that a strategic approach be provided to address the current and future needs of skate and BMX activities within the municipality.

"Skate boarding and BMX riding are unstructured recreational pursuits that, subject to the availability of facilities, allow participants greater flexibility than organised sporting competitions," Cr Price said.

"Currently within Latrobe City there are six skate parks and seven dirt BMX tracks that have been considered in preparing this draft plan, as well as the development of additional new facilities."

Cr Price said the draft plan introduces a hierarchy of skate facilities to identify the appropriate provision of facilities at a regional, district and local level.

"Among recommendations contained in the draft plan is a proposal that resources and support be provided to assist the Glengarry community in the development of a local level skate facility.

"The draft plan also proposes undertaking a technical audit of all existing skate and BMX facilities to identify condition and amenity issues requiring attention; and where necessary, to undertake improvement works.

"Support to the Yinnar community to prepare a detailed project proposal for the establishment of a local level skate park for consideration in the 2009/10 budget is also identified in the draft plan," Cr Price said.

"Additionally, the draft plan proposes undertaking a feasibility study to identify the most appropriate location for a regional skate/BMX facility in Latrobe City."

Cr Price said that the informal nature of skate and BMX activities makes it difficult to obtain precise data on the rates of participation within the community. "However, even a casual passer by will note the popularity of these facilities with young people," Cr Price said.

"We can be somewhat guided by information such as that prepared by Sport and Recreation Victoria which indicated that in the 10–16 years age group skateboarding and BMX riding was in the top ten recreational activities.

"It’s also important to recognise that skate and BMX activities offer all the typical physical, mental and social benefits of other recreation activities, with the added bonus that they target part of our community which can feel marginalised by typical recreation provision. Typically skaters and BMX devotees are often at an age where participation in team sports and involvement in other physical activity may have started to decline; so these facilities help keep our young community healthy," Cr Price said.

"In recent years Latrobe City Council has received a number of requests for improvements to existing skate or BMX facilities or development of new facilities; and council believes this draft plan is not just a step towards addressing needs that have already been well aired, but will establish goals for the future which will benefit young people across our community in the years to come," Cr Price added.

Written submissions on the draft skate BMX plan will be received until 27 March 2009 and enquiries can be directed to Ian Murphy, Latrobe City’s recreation planner, telephone 5128 5431.

 


Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com



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