Seafront residents in Burnham-On-Sea have called on town councillors to crackdown on skateboarders who use The Esplanade.
Residents from Vicarage Court told the council’s Town Improvements Commitee on Wednesday night that the issue had “got out of hand” and that “prompt action” was needed to avoid accidents.
“They constantly bang the pavements and make lots of noise that annoys nearby residents. What’s more, they put up ramps and set up metal bars that could easily cause an accident,” said Linda Bacon, one of the residents.
“Earlier in February, two skateboarders went onto private property and caused one elderly resident a great deal of distress. She was badly frightened.”
“We need signs along the seafront or something to help address this problem.”
Town clerk Eileen Shaw said that bye-laws do state that skateboarding is not allowed on the seafront, but she added that “from conversations with the police, it would be difficult to enforce these while there are no signs in the area.”
Former Mayor Louise Parkin added that she too had received several complaints about the problem. “Some resident just hear thud, thud, thud all day when the skateboarders are in the area,” she said. “I’ve seen parents drop their children with skateboards off on the seafront even come back later with sandwiches for them, which is a tad irresponsible.”
“We do have a £50,000 skate park at Apex Park which is not being used to its maximum.”
Cllr Neville Jones described the problem as a “long running saga” and proposed that leaflets be printed highlighting the issue and outlining the rules. He suggested that they should be given to skateboarders by local police. And Councillor Chris Williams said “people have been plagued by this problem for some time. It’s about time we took some action.”
But Cllr Ken Smout warned: “If you tackle the problem in one area, you run the risk of moving it to another part of town. You’ve got to look at the wider issues here.”
It looks likely that the council will print leaflets and get them distributed to skateboarders who use The Esplanade.
.A seafront skateboarder responds…
One seafront skateboarder, Ryan Ayres, contacted Burnham-On-Sea.com about the proposals, and said: “We are not dangerous – maybe just to ourselves by falling off. And if we do fall over near someone we always say sorry instantly.”
“We have spoken to the residents over the road at the block of flats and they said they didn’t mind us skateboarding there as long as it was for short periods.”
“We skate on weekdays from around 4pm until 6 or 7. When it rains or is wet you won’t ever see us due to the weather damaging our boards. We skate elsewhere at weekends.”
Ryan said that many skateboarders do not like to use the Apex skate park due to what he alleged was “drug dealing” in the area and rubbish at the facility. “It’s not a nice environment, and also skateboarding about two miles from Burnham
isn’t very nice.”
He added: “I do think there should be better facilities. If you look at Glastonbury
skate park, it cost around £30,000 and is amazing. Ours in Burnham cost more and is worse – that’s not right. They should have got some views from skateboarders to what they wanted in the skatepark, not what the council wants.”
