SOUTHSEA SKATEPARK TRUST
Southsea Skatepark, Clarence Esplanade, Southsea, Portsmouth, PO5 3NZ
02392 295 360 / mail@southseaskatepark.org
Charity registration number: 1141066 / Company registration number: 6679416
Following an unsuccessful attempt to put the skatepark out to tender in 2005/06, Portsmouth City Council proposed reducing the opening of the park to the summer months only. This was widely seen by the users and others as a step towards closure and provoked a vociferous campaign of objection. In response, the Leader of the Council threw out a challenge to the park’s supporters to come up with a new body to take over the park operation.
A number of individuals came together, registered as a not for profit company and subsequently as a charity and negotiated the transfer of the park on 1st April 2011.
The Southsea Skatepark Company (working name Southsea Skatepark Trust), has a 60 year lease on the park at a peppercorn rent. In the first five years of operation the Trust received year-on-year reducing revenue funding from the Council. This funding ceased on 31st March 2016, since when the Trust has been wholly self-funding.
As an additional income stream, the Trust opened its own onsite shop in 2014, selling scooters, skates, helmets and spares, as well as a range of own branded goods.
The Trust also owns a catering unit within the park, which is rented to an independent operator and yields a rental to the Trust as well as providing a service to users, parents and spectators.
The Skatepark is open all year round and caters for beginners to professionals, with some 90% of users being under 16.
For more information, contact us at the email address shown above.
