New community skatepark planned for south Manchester park

A new skatepark could be developed in Fog Lane Park, Didsbury. A family from south Manchester are working to create a skate park, not only designed for the skating community of Manchester, but by them as well.

The drivers behind this idea, Gareth Breeze and his brother-in-law Christian D’Andrea, want to renovate the already existing skate park at Fog Lane Park with the help, ideas and designs of those involved in the Manchester skating community. They have created a webiste, opening up design decisions to the community.

While the idea is still in its infancy, the brothers-in-law already have the support of the Friends of Fog Lane Park and are going to be using social media to get the word out about the community wide collaboration.

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Gareth, who lives in south Manchester and runs EBGB Studios, got involved with this project after noticing that the skate park at Fog Lane Park was in need of renovation. He explained: “First and foremost, Manchester is a city that celebrates creativity and the output of a lot of creative elements. It doesn’t seem to have a great deal of publicly funded facilities available for skaters.

“Skating, in terms of all sports, is quite a counter culture creative sport so it feels surprising that that is the case. Manchester has such an incredible skate community that, in response to that, has started to create, what is called, DIY skateparks.

“There’s one up on Great Ancoats Street called Goose Side. There’s one in Hulme called B-Side where they are just banding together with materials and just creating a safe, skate space for themselves to use.

“What I wanted to do was to take the essence of what the skate community is