Southsea Skate Park - 26th Jan 2004
Southsea Roller Hockey club has, for the first time in it’s fifty six year history, been denied the use of it’s training facilities at Southsea Skate Park. Portsmouth City Council have declared that the moving of the ramps, built on the skate rink to augment existing jumps and ramps, is dangerous, and has banned their removal on Health and Safety grounds.
Urgent negotiations are ongoing with the city council to resolve the situation. The lack of training showed at the recent division1 tournament at Halifax, with Southsea appearing somewhat “rink rusty”. The club is hoping that the city council will take urgent action to make the removal of ramps easier and safer.
The club has suffered a number of set backs in recent months, but has managed to “compromise” it’s way around most of them. However, the loss of the rink is one for which the club has no compromise solution. Portsmouth City Council will be taking the necessary action to allow them to get back to their home rink, but the club has made the council aware that there are several competitions to be held at the rink this year, so such action needs to happen sooner rather than later.
It’s rather ironic then, that all this comes when Southsea are having their best season for some considerable time, with the future of the club looking more secure than in the preceding years.
In the meantime, Southsea RHC would like to thank Farnham RCH for the offer of fortnightly training sessions whilst the Suuthsea rink is temporarily out of action
