In 2013, local Skater’s of Margate decided to build their own skate park on the seafront as they had nowhere to skate. This quickly became a community project Margate had suddenly become united in the project of building a place for the skaters.
The local community came together to put forward materials and paid for the project out of their own pocket. The park had been a functioning skate park for eight months in the summer of 2013 when Thanet Council bull-dozed the site at 6am in the morning stating the park as unsafe. 4000 members of the community signed a petition for the council to rebuild the site but it did not get the approval it needed and there has not been a skate park since.
The actions of the council caused a big divide between the council and the community and a project which the council should have supported for it’s local people was so quickly destroyed made the residents of Margate feel again isolated from their town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7SZ2ZgXPp4
Local resident tells the story of Little Oasis Skate Park
Rachel C Clarke Portfolio 