SPINE RAMP RESURFACED, splinter free bums.
Sing Hosanna! The spine ramp has been resurfaced with posh new birch faced ply.
Upon completion of the ramps, the clouds parted, angels did burst into heavenly chorus and Zac promptly christened them with his beard.There is a NO PEGS rule for BMXers, sorry guys but we can’t have pegs ripping the ramps up, even the best of you ditch your bikes and put holes in the surface.
There is a cross wrench chained to the viewing platform to remove pegs so please do use it.
We have spent the last of our pennies on the ply and screws to get the park back up to scratch and are officially flat broke...or there abouts.
3 KIND LADS SCALE MOUNTAIN AND GIVE OWP CASH!
Massive thanks to Matthew Anderton, Ben Burgess, Finlay Birnie, and Milos Besevic from Cherwell School who raised £153.18 for the Oxford Wheels Project.They succeeded in scaling Mt. Snowdon Wales on a sponsored hike and OWP were the grateful recipients of the hard earned funds.
The money they raised will go towards the ongoing cost of keeping the ramps open to the public and will benefit hundred of people.
Nice one chaps, huge thankyous all round!
RAMP DEMOLITION
Sadly after 10 years of heavy usage the vert ramp and the 5ft and 6ft ramps have been demolished. It is s a sad thing to have to do but on safety grounds it was absolutely necessary. Good times were had by so many people on the magnificent wooden waves and tragically we had little choice to take them down after they rotted into the Meadow Lane bog. We were hoping to have something else for you folks to ride before this all happened but due to the council ignoring the needs of Oxford’s young people, we’re a bit stuck (see below)
COUNCIL SHAFT THE OWP.......again.
The council have decided after all not to let the skatepark go ahead.
Well there you are, the council advised us to apply for and then approved planning permission for a skatepark knowing that the lease would get turned down. Ta very much. There is a lot of political nonsense at work here. The OWP was advised by the executive board to apply for planning permission to make the application official, which we did. However when it comes to negotiating a lease on the land to actually use it as a skatepark this is an entirely different matter. The decision as to whether the lease would go ahead lies with the Cowley Area Committee who have stated from the outset that they oppose the park. When asked why, the members of the Cowley Area Committee (Labour) and the rest of the Labour party refuse to give a straight answer. We covered everything, but this is apparently not enough:
- Issues of noise have been addressed proving it is not a problem however they refute the scientific evidence in the sound report.
- There is a huge amount of support for the park shown in the petition of the local, the committee accuse OWP of fabrication of the petition.
- The Environment Agency approve the plans yet again they question the validity of the bodies research.
- A precedent set by Meadow Lane skatepark has proved parking is not an issue (the park even has a carpark) but again the CAC deny this.
- Committee have said it will bring trouble to the area although the local police teams say its a good idea.
- The proposals fulfill target set out by the labour party themselves, and yet they still oppose the park.
Still the Cowley Area Committee in the face of all this evidence oppose the park without a single valid argument, which is not constructive at all.
So what does it take?
What we need to know is exactly why the Cowley Area Committee are so vociferously opposed to the skatepark, without this knowledge how can Oxford get a skatepark?
It is true political parties must work together and Labour Councillor Saj Malik used his opposition to the park as a major issue in his 2008 election campaign (see above) and so Labour are now bound to support him. Members of political parties must support each other or stuff falls to pieces. (Please see a certain Mister Gordon Brown about this one, count the knives in his back) Unity is important in politics so it could be argued that this a perfectly satisfactory political answer to the Labour Party opposing line. Its unfortunate for the kids of Oxford ,but valid. Politics is politics.
But still no reason why ? This smells a bit funny and is being looked into.
However, on the upside Antonia Bance from the Labour group has been in touch with and would very much like to find an alternative location for the skatepark which is nice.
Never before has a councillor offered time and resources into the search for a suitable skatepark location so this good news. After a 15 years of looking for sites in Oxford Im pretty sure we have every corner you can think of (and several you cant) pretty much covered. A report was even written about it. But who knows, maybe the council can get their paws on something. Currently waiting until October to hear back on this....
Yep, the world sucks just that little bit more thanks to some daft political crap. In the mean time go out and ride, be nice to everyone and build something new to ride.
SKATEPARK GETS APPROVAL!
WHAT?Approval you say? As in , go ahead and build a skatepark ? Yes, that's right. Please pick your jaw up from the floor and put on your waterproof party pants, Oxford has been given the go ahead for a skatepark. The Strategic Development Control Committee voted 10 to 1 in favour of the proposed skatepark at Cowley Marsh giving OWP the go ahead to crack on a get some decent concrete built for the city of Oxford. Rejoice!
Loads of stuff to sort out as you can imagine, more news as we get our heads around the decisions we've been waiting ten years to hear......Check the story in the Oxford Mail, cue cheesey press pics...
Next meeting is on Tuesday June 10th, would be grand if you could make it along.
OUT TO GRAZE FESTIVAL
Friday 13th to Sunday 15th June
The kindly souls at the Out To Graze festival are supporting the Oxford Wheels Project because they are ace!Out To Graze Festival is a two day musical feast featuring the cream of Oxford's musical talent held at Rookery Farm, Shabbington Buckinghamshire from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th June 2008.
With over 40 DJ's and bands Spread over three stages and an all night acoustic cafe (24hrs), the event will showcase a range of musical styles, with bands playing indie, rock, electro and alternative, DJ's playing funk, soul, reggae, ska and hiphop as well as the Simple & Slide DJ's spinning their eclectic mix of house, breaks, techno and more.
Bands confirmed for the weekend on the Live Bands Stage (Sat 12pm - 10:00pm) include Scanners, Dogshow, BabyGravy, Borderville, Von Braun, Number Nine, Jaberwok, International Jetsetters, Eduard SoundingBlock, and more.
Bassmentality/Skylarkin Soundsystem/The Dugout tent (Both nights) will have music from Raggasaurus, Horizontal Line, One dollar PeepShow, QT & The Reservoir dogs, Jewels & The Jaccuzzis, Loose Grip, One Dollar Peep Show, Number Nine, Dan Fraser, Drunken Uncle Bungle, DJ Darcy, Aiden Skylarkin', PeepShow Paddy, DJ Indecision, and DJ Saine.
The Simple & Slide Tent will have house, breaks, and techno from Lee Mortimer, Emily Williams, James Weston, Matt Braddock, Neil simpson, Kostas G. Si Yeats, Ed Steele, and Rich Smith.
More info and tickets can be found here
April 2nd 2008
COWLEY AREA COMMITTEE REJECT SKATE PARK
No massive surprise there then. The Cowley Area
Committee (CAC) unanimously decided to oppose the
skatepark. Their comments will be passed to the central
planning board where the final decision will be made. It
would have been nice to have them support it, but perhaps
not totally essential as it is not their decision to make.
The CAC has three people who sit on the central planning
board who were not allowed to comment on the matter. True
to their word they kept schtum which was good of them and
all in line with the correct planning procedure. It's got
to be said though, a certain member of the CAC completely
lost it. Supposedly impartial and objective he went off
like some demented political peacock and laid into the
whole history of the skate park issue and didn't have one
kind word to say about...anyone really. If anyone there has
a clue what was going on for that 10 minutes of madess and
paper flapping, answers on a postcard.A petition was
received from the opposition with 300 signatures (more
power to 'em) which apparently seemed to have more sway
than ours with 675 names on it. Odd that.
But we shall see....The final decision has been postponed
until after the elections as the skatepark has become a
party political issue so we're once again being kicked from
pillar to post. We should hear something back at the end of
May.
Also , we have confirmation that outside of the political
arena, the anti's a Cowley Marsh are actually a dead nice
bunch. If only they bloody well skated...
PLANNING APPLICATION RECOMMENDED FOR APPROVAL
A formal planning application for the skatepark at Cowley Marsh has been submitted. The planning department has been through the application and has recommended that the plans be approved.This is jolly good news indeed. It does not however mean the park has the go ahead, it still has to be approved by the councillors, so we still need emails of support.What happens next is that the report will reach the Cowley Area Committee meeting on the 2nd of April and they should in theory commend the proposals. However this is Oxford and anything could happen. If you are available to attend the next Cowley Area Committee meeting your presence would be hugely appreciated. The issue of the skatepark is at the top of the agenda so there shouldn't be much hanging around. It is at the John Bunyan Baptist Church in ,Crowell Road, Cowley Centre (next to the multi story car park). Meeting starts at 6:30pm sharp. If you can make it along to show your support that would be fantastic
Read about the story on the Oxford Mail website, click below
SLOW DOWN ON MEADOW LANE, PLEASE
To the few of you that drive to the ramps , please can you check your speed to super slow on Meadow Lane - we have lots of kids near the playground riding bikes and they out of drivers lines of sight. So please respect our friends next door and remember to slow down.£3000 GRANT AWARDED!
Oxford City Council has kindly awarded the OWP £3000 in earth credits to keep the ramps going for one more year. This will help us cover the costs of resurfacing the last standing ramp and also pay for the every increasing insurance premium. Excellent news! Thanks very much Oxford City CouncilSUPPORT SHOWN FOR THE SKATEPARK
Residents of Cowley Marsh have shown their support for the skatepark. In a massive effort to inform and petition those living around the Marsh, 85% of residents support the proposals. Details of our findings can be found hereTHE RAMPS ARE COMING DOWN
You might have heard some of the the ramps are
on their final furlong. At the last meeting it was decided
by the committee that the 6ft ramp needs to come down as
soon as possible. We've set aside the Sunday the 16th
August to start the work.
The plan is to completely dismantle the 6ft high, 32ft wide ramp (that backs onto the vert,pictured), as we get inside the guts of the ramp we'll assess the state of the 5ft and see if we can save it .It's important for the BMXers to have something of decent height to ride. It may be rescuable, it may not but we shall try our best.
The organisers of the Southparks Fireworks and Bonfire have agreed to burn the wood in November as long as we get it over to them, which will be a job for later on.
If you can help out, please get in touch.
Fret not though, the mini-spine will remain standing and the vert will be around for a while yet. The same rules apply to graffiti and keeping the park clean and safe. It is our shop window and we keep things neat tidy as always.
NOISE EXPERIMENT
We've set up a little experiment for those that are worried about the noise issue a for the proposals for Cowley Marsh.It's devastatingly simple, it involves standing 180 meters from Meadow Lane skate and listening. 180 Meters is the distance to the nearest house at Cowley Marsh. Click here for the noise experiment.