Pictures: Skate Jam held to mark first anniversary of ‘friendly’ Sandy Skatepark

Crime Awareness and Prevention was the focus of a special celebration held to mark the first anniversary of the launch of Sandy Skatepark.

The Skate Jam event, opened by mayor Joanna Hewitt, was attended by local community policing team PC Dave Lace and newly appointed PCSO Donna Donnelly.

It was also an opportunity, led by Sandy Town Council along and the police team, to engage with the community about their opinions and feedback on the skatepark.

A spokesperson for the town council said: “Sandy Town Council is committed to making the skatepark a safe and enjoyable place for young people to be and are looking forward to how we can continue to do so.

"We engaged with 41 young people and 11 parents and overall had some great and thought-provoking feedback. 63% of the young people that we spoke to said they found the skate park an extremely friendly place to be (with a further 10% responding ‘friendly’, 23% were neutral and only one young person said they found the park slightly unfriendly).

"We also engaged with young people to promote the Safer Streets competition from the Office of the Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner, which offered some great prizes including a GoPro creator and Tablet package for entering a short video/digital artwork.”

Young people also had the chance to have their say on community safety via a ‘Youth survey’ organised by Safer Central at Central Bedfordshire Council. The survey can be found here

The Mayor thanked the Skate Park sponsors including Central Bedfordshire Council, Frontier, GeeJay Chemicals Ltd, Grand Union Housing Group, Tarmac Landfill Communities Fund, The Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire and The Rotary Club of Sandy.

Thanks were also extended to volunteers Eileen & David Crowe, Aguma Isaac & Ndunwa Barnabas Chidi along with volunteers who also assisted with litter pick-up, manning stalls, marshaling and operating the gate; Old Red Barbers, of Sandy, who donated some wonderful prizes, excellent vendors who kept the everyone fed and watered Geoff at Camp Rubicon for entertaining the crowds.

If you would like to volunteer at future events, get in touch here