Exciting times for everyone here at Chippenham Borough Lands Charity – we were granted planning permission to build a new climbing centre and skate park on our ‘Borough Lands‘ at Westmead playing fields behind the Wessex Water site. The plans were given the green light at Wiltshire Council’s Northern Area Planning Committee Meeting on Wednesday 7th August 2019. If anyone is interested in seeing the detail of the planning application that was submitted to the council please take a look on the Wiltshire Council planning portal here. We now have much work to do to develop detailed plans for these new facilities for Chippenham – working closely with our architects and specialist designers.
Climbing is one of the fastest growing sports in popularity with a challenge for all ages and abilities. The plans for the Climbing Centre include interior & exterior climbing walls, bouldering, changing areas and a café. This will be a superb custom-made all-weather facility for young and old, beginners and experts and perfect for schools, clubs and individuals.
The design for the Climbing Centre includes both interior and exterior walls that are reconfigurable to keep it both challenging and interesting. It will help to really put Chippenham on the map as will be the only Climbing Centre of its kind for miles.
We are using Canvas, specialists in their field, to design the skatepark and Wiltshire Council will be providing £200,000 towards costs for the skatepark construction. We will be working closely with Elkins Architects and Canvas, to develop the detailed design for the skatepark in the coming weeks. Within the scope of our funding and the constraints arising from the planning approvals, we’ve tried to balance street and park elements to facilitate a range of ability usage.
There is potential for expansion within the site should further funding become available. We’ve engaged a local group of skateboarders in the process so far but if any members of the local community want to add ideas to the initial design plans please get in touch via ideas@westmeadhub.org.
Construction will take place as soon as possible, it is likely that this will be in the new year. Our architects have taken great care to address the local issues of noise and flooding to ensure the success of the project. The environmentally friendly wooden clad design places essential buildings above potential flood levels. Any potential noise from the skate park is shielded by buildings and masked by existing levels of traffic noise from Avenue La Fleche. Closing the skate park at night, enclosing the area with security fencing and CCTV will also help to prevent any anti-social behaviour.
Five new sports are being introduced to the next Olympics in Tokyo 2020. Skateboarding and Sport Climbing are two of them. Our plans will ensure that Chippenham will be at the forefront of bringing these sports to our area.
