Couple voice concern over skatepark noise

From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Thursday 16th Oct 2003.

ELDERLY Mary Nowlan, who suffers from agoraphobia and depression, fears the construction of a skatepark behind her home could make her life unbearable.

Westmead Playing Field is currently top of North Wiltshire District Council's list as a potential site for a new skate park in Chippenham.

Two weeks ago the council's executive committee agreed to bid for £36,500 from next year's budget to build the skate park at Westmead.

But less than a stone's throw away from the proposed site of the skate park is the home of the Nowlans, who have lived in Westmead Lane for 19 years.

Geoffrey Nowlan, 77, who has cared for his 64-year-old wife for 42 years, says he has learnt to live with the noise from the bypass and Hygrade Food's nearby factory.

But he fears that the added disruption of having skaters thundering past his home to get to the new skate park, less than 60 metres from his home, could upset his wife's fragile nerves.

Mrs Nowlan, said: "People from the folk festival camp right outside our back door and they make a lot of noise.

"We couldn't sleep because of people going by, but at least it is only for a few days.

"I'm concerned that with a skatepark we will have people constantly going up and down the lane and past the house at all hours of the night."

The Nowlans' home, which is owned by Wessex Water and backs onto the playing field, only has double-glazing on the three windows directly facing the field.

It is not protected from the Westmead Lane side of the house from where Mr Nowlan said he expected most skaters would access the skatepark.

He added that the eaves of his home, which was built in 1898, are open and unlined and provide scant protection against any possible noise pollution.

"I have been through the Blitz and the war and if they decide to build it here there is nothing we can do and we will just have to accept it," said Mr Nowlan, a water inspector for 35 years.

"As long as they don't come down Westmead Lane and climb over my walls I don't think my life will be disrupted, it's my wife I'm worried about."

Two weeks ago dozens of residents from The Paddocks, which is also next to the playing field, went to the district council to urge the executive committee not to proceed with the project.

The residents said they were concerned about noise levels, and threatened the council with legal action if the plans went ahead, amid fears that the close proximity of a skatepark would devalue their homes.

They also said they feared for the safety of young skaters because they said the playing field is already a haunt for drug users and yobs, and a skate park would become a focus for more anti-social behaviour.

Mr Nowlan said he shares the concerns of the other residents and fears Westmead Lane, which is busy with articulated lorries supplying Hygrade Food's factory, could be an accident waiting to happen for youngsters accessing the skatepark from the town centre.

"It's a difficult place to get to and the main access point is through Westmead Lane," Mr Nowlan said.

"Hundreds of people are crossing the lane all day to get to the factory canteen and there are always lorries going up and down the lane.

"I'm against the skatepark because I think that it would attract more drug users.

The skaters I have met are really nice chaps, but you always get that small element that spoil it for everyone.

"But if the council paid to double glaze our windows and line up the roof I would be happier."

Mr Nowlan said he was also unsure about the safety of the proposed site, which is on the River Avon's flood plain and was waterlogged in 2002 when the river burst its banks.

Archive Home