A fundraising campaign has been launched to create a new all-purpose biking and skateboarding track in an Aberdeen community.
The proposed Cove and Altens Community Bike Park would be built on top of the old BMX track behind the Altens Community Centre.
The committee responsible for the plans came up with the idea as a means of providing youngsters who have nowhere to ride their bikes with a place to have fun and exercise safely, without annoying residents.
Simon Hall, 42, is one of the members of the committee and said: “We started planning this in September last year.
“Everybody was moaning about kids in Cove being out on their bikes with no helmets or lights and causing a nuisance – just kids being kids, to be honest.
“But nobody was recognising the good news that the kids were actually getting out and about and leaving the house.
“There’s an old BMX track in Cove, but it’s basically just a circle of dirt, so we decided to get together and try to replace it with a new facility for these young people to use their bikes and get active in a responsible way, and have fun at the same time.
“We have now got a committee together of five people, and we’re in the process of becoming an officially recognised charity.”
The group is hoping to raise £4,000 to cover the initial planning, development and design stage of the project.
Mr Hall added: “We’re hoping the track will be full of jumps, bumps and ramps and suitable for bikers, skateboarders, rollerbladers and we even want to include the potential for wheelchair users to use it.
“There are plenty of other skateparks and bike tracks who have managed to secure funding from the lottery and other sources, so we’re hoping to go down that route once we have our design in place.
“And, with the way we’re aiming to create our design, we should be able to get funding to build additional parts which can be added on to the skatepark in the future to expand it.”
To donate or find out more, visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk and search for “Cove and Altens Community Bike Park”
