The UK’s First Skateparks & Skateboarding Space Guidance Released

Skateboard England and Skateboard GB are delighted to announce the publication of the UK’s first official “Design and Development Guidance for Skateboarding” which has been created in partnership with Sport England. The document aims to support the creation of skateparks and skateboard facilities, through advice on design, construction and build.

It will become the essential resource to guide community user groups, Local Authorities and other organisations in the promotion and development of skateboarding. By providing advice and pointers on everything from how best to engage with communities to design and build, it will help to create more and better places to skateboard.

The guidance provides information on the background of skateboarding, an overview of skateparks and skateable spaces, skatepark sizes and costs, procurement and examples of best practice. It will form the basis of a working document with yearly updates, to ensure the continual development of places to skate in the UK and help enable the UK to become a world leading country in creating spaces for skateboarding.

The Tokyo Olympics is set to showcase skateboarding for the first time and is likely to become increasingly popular in the number and diversity of riders next year. There are already 750,000 active participants in the sport in the UK alone and the growth expected to reach anything between 17 – 21%, with many outlets already reporting on a strong growth during the lockdown.

James Hope-Gill, CEO at Skateboard England and Skateboard GB said ‘The guidance sets out an approach for a more coordinated and holistic approach to the design and operation of skateboarding facilities. It has taken over a year to create and is a collaboration of experts from across the industry, whom have worked incredibly hard to deliver a brilliant guidance document, which will help make skateboarding better for all concerned’.

Tim Hollingsworth, CEO at Sport England commented: “Sport England recognises Skateboarding’s considerable reach and impact from street to podium, and its potential to create more opportunities for people to be physically active. This new guidance is an important step in creating quality skateboarding provision, increasing opportunities in neighbourhoods and communities across the country.”