Vandalism at Covpark

It would seem we have more troublemakers appearing at Covpark. Ann Akerman sent me this email today;

Hi – Just to say yet more vandalism from skaters we suspect, as part of the skate park fence has been unbolted and used as a ramp. Also offensive graffiti on the ramps again. This is doing nothing for the cause and we need to try and find out who these people are who are now coming tooled up to create vandalism. I have referred to police also and will follow up with CCTV to see if the cameras caught anything.

Now, whilst she says they suspect it’s skateboarders, I have a hard time believing it would be anyone who read my last warning about how our skatepark project is in jeopardy because of people misusing equipment in the Memorial Park. I’m not pointing fingers, but we all know that BMXers and scooter kids are the main locals at Covpark these days – and I have first hand experience of BMXers trying to help get our extension with spot on feedback and trying to help anyway they can. I could be wrong, but Scooter Kids are who I’d blame for this (this has nothing to do with the fact that I think Scooter Kids are the scum of skateparks all over the country… OK, maybe a little bit). 

Regardless of who’s behind this vandalism – it needs to stop now. If you’ve read Ann’s email properly, you will know she’s got the police involved, and she’ll be scrutinizing the CCTV footage to see if she can see who’s responsible. Not to mention, the people behind this have pissed off the council to a degree that I’m sure any money we raise for the extension will be used to get rid of graffiti. This might mean repainting the ramps again, it might also mean paying people to remove it with water jets. Most of all, you’ve pissed me off because I have to apologise everytime something like this happens, and considering it’s been happening a lot, I’m getting really tired of sticking up for people who are just making my job harder.

First, we had kids mouthing off to builders from Gravity when they did the first load of repairs earlier this year. Then I noticed a ridiculous rise in litter and rubbish appearing at the park (funny how the rise in rubbish appears once the scooter craze goes into full swing….). Then you’ve got people riding the new and refurbished architecture in the park. Now you’ve got people vandalising what little obstacles we have at the skatepark. If doing any of this stuff sounds like a good idea, I suggest you give up whatever it is you’re riding and go piss someone else off. None of us want people screwing up our chance to get a better skatepark, so use your head. I really hope this is the last time I have to write one of this rants on here.

If anyone knows who was responsible for the recent vandalism at the skatepark, email Ann Akerman at Ann.Akerman@coventry.gov.uk.