HELP NEEDED! Lets do this thing

FiannaGym.com

Hi all,

I hope you will support this initiative!!! A new skate park in Balalley.

Please copy and past this email to the address that follow. If you know of any other forums, post them there too etc.


EMAIL.
Hello,

I would just like to express my support for a skate park in Balalley Park, Dundrum, to replace the disused and dilapidated tennis courts that scar this parks beauty.

I understand that the population along the Sandyford Road, (from Dundrum up to Stepaside) has exploded. Apartments, flats, affordable housing and new homes have almost doubled the population. With this, and the lack of sports facilities, I see only trouble ahead for this area, as the young population grows.

Furthermore, this beautiful park, is being let slide into disuse as the tennis courts provide a haven for "knacker drinking", making the park dangerous and an intimidating place.

I wish to express my complete support for this initiative.

Yours Sincerely


XXXXX

ADDRESSES

sports@dlrcoco.ie, smcnulty@dlrcoco.ie, bdempsey@dlrcoco.ie, alindsay@dlrcoco.ie, poconnor@dlrcoco.ie, jbailey@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, mbaker@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, nbhreathna@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, lbutler@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, nchilders@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, bconway@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, mcorrigan@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, corrm@indigo.ie, louisecosg@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, louise.cosgrave@indigo.ie, aculhane@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, cdevlin@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, cormacdevlin@ireland.com, jdbyrne@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, tonyfox@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, phand@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, ghorkan@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, kireland@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, tjoyce@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, tkivlehan@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, dmarren@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, tmatthews@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, lmccarthy@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, mmoconnor@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, denisoc@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, gokeeffe@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, joleary@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, eregan@cllr.dlrcoco.ie, carriesmyth@cllr.dlrcoco.ie

MY ORIGINAL EMAIL.... the argument FOR Balalley Skate Park...

Dear Ms. XXXXXX

My Name is Pearse Stokes and I am a long-time resident of Dundrum. I am sure you are inundated with this sort of thing and perhaps you are not the correct person for this to be sent to. In any event here is my question;

The park in Balalley, Dundrum, is quite a nice park and always has had lots of use. When I was growing up there were tennis courts there that have since fallen into a dilapidated state. They have no fence around them, no nets and the lines are gone. Now they are covered in broken glass etc. This all adds up to a feeling that the park is in general, one of disregard and as such the "knacker drinking" and "anti-social behaviour" in the park is on the increase. It seems that sometimes the park in the evening is only for people of a rowdy nature.

I work as an anthropologist and pay particular attention to obesity and anti-social behaviour in adolescents and through this I discovered the Bushy Park skate park. Having researched this it is built on the same platform (2 tennis courts) as I propose in Balalley. So it is very possible and highly effective.

Dundrum and Sandyford are in the process of a boom. From Dundrum Town Centre all the way up to the Dublin Mountains there has been a surge of Housing, affordable housing and apartment developments. All of which need greater recreational facilities than are currently provided. A park near-by (Ballaly Park) recently lost its playground facilities. With this boom in population we need to see a development of recreational areas. Once again through my research I have found that skate parks provide a fantastic method for councils to support the young population.

All of my research, and all of the international research points to the following;
Skate parks result in decreased "anti-social behaviour"
Have a positive effect on health (long term)
Integrate a disenfranchised youth "back into" society at large

So it is clear to see that skate parks are a positive (indeed I would claim purely positive) investment. I coach martial arts and would love to see money invested there, but the truth is the skate park requires no supervision (my research supports this, indeed my research has shown decreased level of hostility and increased levels of activity in parks that are "unmanaged") and are solid concrete, in short, easy to run.

Which brings me to my next point; what the park should look like.
There are a variety of park "types" as I am no doubt you are aware. Cutting costs by choosing lower quality ramps does two things;
Firstly it annoys skaters that they have been given poor quality equipment and therefore alienates them further.
Second the equipment becomes dilapidated quickly and to use the criminologists' term, we have a "broken windows effect", that is to say dilapidated equipment sends a message that the council/government etc, just don't care and that it is okay to abuse the area. In fact this is exactly what is happening right now in Balalley with the disused tennis courts.

So the park should be an "insitue" concrete park. There are some key elements and components that I have researched to make parks useful and safe over a long term. A simple example is placement of "boundary" equipment. In many parks around Ireland this has not been given the attention it needs. Leading to "liminal" areas in the park where people congregate. This is a foolish and dangerous as people congregating on a rugby pitch. It is up to the designers to address this in the lay-out of the park. Accurate planning of the park can make is self managed.

I am sure you can see the benefits of a skate park to this rapidly expanding population and to cleaning up and developing an unused and dangerous area. I hope you will consider this.
Many thanks.

Pearse Stokes

Thanks guys...

Peace

FiannaGym.com

Hi,

So far I have actually gotten loads of replies (about 10 since I sent the email today).

Everyone seems positive about the idea, which is the easy part. We just need to keep the pressure on!

If you do email the people above, why not post here and let us know what you said/did or what response you got. Or just post so we know who's supporting this in a real way.

Thanks a million guys.

Pearse