Town of Victoria Park community life director Tina Ackerman agreed with the research and said ultimately the Town’s skate parks got a ‘good behaviour’ tick.
Portable skate ramps are rotated between McCallum Park (next to skate bowl) in Victoria Park, John Bissett Reserve in East Victoria Park and Rayment Park in Lathlain and have not had any anti-social behaviour reported in the two years of operation.
The McCallum Park Skate Bowl has been in place since 2005.
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READ NOW‘Soon after installation, it was ranked on an Australian skaters website as one of the best skate facilities in Australia,’ Ms Ackerman said.
Since 2005, just two incidents have resulted in police asking for CCTV footage and graffiti at the skate park was sporadic.
Ms Ackerman said residents within a 500m radius were surveyed ahead of the skate bowl’s construction. Just four responses were received ” two in opposition due to noise and the poor condition of the adjacent roadway.
At the time, a petition with 46 signatures was received by council requesting the skate park be located elsewhere.
The researchers wrote that despite its popularity, skateboarding often suffered negative associations and there has been far less attention given to the positive pro-social behaviours that go on at skate parks.
‘Yet skate parks are in fact a powerful setting in which young people can learn the arts of co-operation, negotiation and compromise informally, in contrast to via the structured rules of organised sports,’ lead author Associate Professor Lisa Wood said.