Edinburgh charity: skate parks and green spaces are essential
Edinburgh councillors are coming under increasing pressure to do more to ensure the longevity of green spaces and continue to develop and promote skate parks.
Fields in Trust (FiT) is a national green space charity legally protecting and stewarding parks and green spaces across the UK.
Nearly 66% of people in Edinburgh live in flats compared to a U.K. average of 20%. Back in Scotland’s capital, 15% of residents currently have no access to private outdoor spaces.
Over and above the 36 parks already protected in Edinburgh, the council has now committed to safeguarding an additional 19 green spaces, including the much-loved Saughton Park, across the city.
Stuart Gibson, who runs Skate Mate, a skateboarding company which provides the highest level of skateboarding tuition in Scotland, from Saughton stressed the importance of the work FiT are doing to ensure communities will have access to outdoor places to exercise.
“As much as it is to do with protecting these existing spaces, it’s just as much about the forethought and making sure these places continue to be built and these places continue to thrive. We need the green space to be there in the first place because once that’s gone that’s gone forever,” said the owner of his own skating business.
Gibson emphasised how much Edinburgh residents have come to rely on places like Saughton skatepark since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I lived in Gorgie and I got very bored so me and a couple of other people went there consistently. I would say as that first lockdown developed and we got into the second one, that place was absolutely thriving, we had never seen it so busy. It reminded me of that first time when it opened when I was a kid and it was really busy, added Gibson.
Fellow skateboarder and Saughton park regular, Max Ponton, agreed with the significant turning point the global pandemic presented.
He said: “Lockdown gave us a forceful reminder of the necessity of green spaces as a place to escape, but parks are more than that. They are special to the people that allow them to be! Edinburgh has no shortage of special parks, however, Saughton is mine.
“I’ve been going to Saughton Park before the addition of the skate park in 2010. Now it’s one of the largest concrete skate parks in the UK, and the best outdoor skate park in Edinburgh.”
Both Ponton and Gibson recently attended the Scottish Parliament to mark the partnership between FiT and the City of Edinburgh Council. This landmark agreement marks Edinburgh’s local authority becoming the first in Scotland to ensure that around 84% of residents who live in the city, are within a 10-minute walk of a permanently protected space.
The initiative comes as pressure on existing green space is set to rise, with the population of Edinburgh predicted to increase by 10% over the next 20 years.
“It is not often that skateboarding has a voice in front of these people and they were forced to listen to us. We had a say in making sure that this misconception about skateboarding, what it is and what the people who skateboard are, changes,” said Gibson.
He continued by adding: “Between Max and I,we counted 10 or 15 individual occasions where people came up to us after we’d spoken and told us, ‘you were surprisingly articulate.’ We left that place thinking what does that mean? Does that mean they thought we couldn’t present ourselves and talk in English?
“That told me everything I needed to know and the reactions of speaking to those people individually asking where I was educated and telling them I was at Stewart’s Melville and George Watson’s College, and they say, ‘oh you are at Watsons and Stewart’s Melville and you are a skateboarder?’ Well yes, skateboarders are everywhere, they’re everyone.
Gibson argues that it might not be a reputation but perhaps more of a misconception of skateboarders in the public eye. Both he and Potson are adamant you cannot let a minority of people depict a whole sport, otherwise you run the risk of ruining a great product and prevent the skateboarding community from thriving.
“They’re not just a specific type of person. It’s not just the homeless guy and the alcoholic who have nothing to do and are therefore skating, no. Skateboarding is so much more than that. It’s a lot of different types of people,” Gibson pointed out.
Skate parks present similar opportunities to pump tracks to get the population outdoors and moving. They help to mitigate the effects of climate change whilst supporting mental and physical health, and even before the pandemic, two thirds of us spent time in a green space at least once a week.
In a recent East Lothian council consultation, over 50% of responders were girls and women. Pump tracks appear to resonate with girls as safe places to engage in and off the success of the first track in Ormiston, The council has allocated £250k towards the delivery of 6 more tracks.
There will be one in each principal town in East Lothian and the council are looking to match fund this with support from Sportscotland and other funders.
As the country and local communities continue to recover from the pandemic, the importance of spending time outside has never been more important.
Outdoor adventure-based play is determined by the individual and encourages them to develop personal resilience skills such as assessing risk, developing personal resilience around weather, connecting with nature, meeting like-minded people, and increased likelihood of unexpected serendipity.
Gibson believes that skateboarding and sports such as BMX have benefited enormously from their inclusion at Olympic Games.
“With the growth of it in the Olympics and the professionalism of skateboarding growing and developing into a sportier type of artform I think that is helping to change the image,” noted Gibson who hosts his coaching sessions at Saughton park.
“It really used to be metal heads drinking booze and smashing bottles and grinding kerbs but these days, as I say there’s so many types of skateboarders that as I say people are slowly coming round to that.”
While skate parks are fighting to change their undeserved image, advocates of pump tracks are looking to drastically improve the number of people aware of their potential.
Pump tracks are a bit of an unknown quantity in Scotland, they have become a part of mainstream outdoor activity in central Europe for years. Skate parks and pump tracks have the potential to support national and local aims to reduce emissions and support sustainable travel goals.
With questions still circling about the legacy of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, it is vital that the Scottish government and local authorities work to protect green spaces and ensure the population can escape our ever-growing concrete jungles.
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