On your skates!

By Melissa Grant
SKATERS and BMX riders will be kick flipping and ripping monos at a state-of-the-art facility in Pakenham before the year’s end.
Civic leaders approved a tender on Monday night for the construction of a skate park at PB Ronald Reserve, not far from the existing one abutting the Living and Learning (LLINC) Centre.
The lake has been filled to make way for the development which is expected to begin in October or November.
Convic Skateparks will build the skate park at a cost of $191,100.
Cardinia Shire Central Ward councillor Brett Owen said young people had provided plenty of input for the project with 40 giving feedback about its design.
“It’s a new skate park that’s going to benefit those users,” he said.
Mayor Bill Ronald said the purpose-built facility would provide for the growing number of skate and BMX enthusiasts in the shire’s growth corridor.
“This (existing) facility, when it was built it wasn’t one good enough for the Pakenham township,” he said.
Cr Ronald said relocating and improving the current skate park would benefit young people as well as freeing up space at the LLINC centre.
However, Ranges Ward councillor Ed Chatwin, the only civic leader to vote against issuing the tender, said the project was a waste of money.
He said the council couldn’t afford to move a skate park only 100 metres away considering its level of debt.
But Bunyip Ward councillor Bill Pearson said the project was a great investment for the community.
“This facility in the next ten years will have to service a population of 40,000 people,” he said.
Cr Owen agreed.
“You look at the current location of the skate park and it’s not ideal,” he said.
Cr Owen said construction of the new skate park would hopefully be complete in December.
The skate park is the most recent addition to PB Ronald Reserve which is fast becoming a sporting and recreation Mecca. Goal posts and cricket nets were installed this year at the reserve and there are also tennis courts, bowling greens, a mega playground and the Pakenham Swimming Pool nearby.