The South Durras fight to get the community’s beloved skate park off council’s hit list received some Olympic muscle last weekend in the form of snowboarder Ben Mates.
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Ben, who finished 11th in the men’s snowboard halfpipe at the Vancouver Olympics earlier this year, says the park is part of his Olympic history.
He is horrified by a Eurobodalla Shire Council proposal to immediately withdraw the facility’s funding and to ultimately remove it from the tight-knit community altogether.
“I learnt to skate there,” he said. “If that park didn’t exist, I doubt I would be where I am today.”
Ben mastered the halfpipe technique, for which he is ranked among the world’s best, at the park.
“Ben would be down here every day,” Julie Mates said. “He was 14 when it was built and he and his friends would go down and make little movies down there. At that age I would say he spent more time at the park than he did at home.”
In its draft recreation plan, council has proposed discontinuing funding for the skate park because “the current and projected community need and use of the Durras skate park does not justify its continued allocation of funding”.
Council has declined to answer questions pertaining to the actual costs involved.
In its submission to council, the Friends of Durras Association said at least three to five children used the park daily, with the numbers jumping to between 12 and 15 on weekends and during holiday periods.
However, council is yet to say how many children it would take to justify the facility’s ongoing funding.
It is also yet to make clear what its intentions are for the land on which the park sits.
On Thursday a council spokeswoman simply said: “Council has been in contact with representatives of the Durras community to clarify the intent of the recommendation that council will continue to maintain the facility until it reaches end of life, the facility has recently been inspected and is deemed to have five to 10 years remaining life”.
What the Mates family would like to know is where has council spent the funding to date?
“I might be confused,” Ben said. “But my Dad with the help of other people in the community built the park, where have they spent all this money?
“I was there on the weekend and the park is in really good condition, it doesn’t need any maintenance and I would be surprised if it would need much more than a patch-up over the next five to 10 years. Even then, it wouldn’t be an expensive job.”
The park is part and parcel of the South Durras community spirit, according to Ben’s dad Bob Mates.
“In the back corner of the park is a piece of cement where we all etched our names when we did the original concrete pour,” he said. “If they want to pull (the park) down, they’re going to have to go over the top of me. It was us who were down here at all hours of the night, working under headlights to get this thing built, not them.
“It took us hours to build this park, hours and hours and now they want to take it away. What gives them the right?”
Visit www.batemansbaypost.com. au and have your say.
