Exclusive Interview – SkatePark Benavente
Exclusive of Site Nacional de Skate
INTRODUCTION
The Benavente Skater community recently conveyed great concern to us about the constant worsening of athletes’ safety conditions at their local SkatePark, and the great frustration that after 10 years it has still not been completed.
We collected testimonials from the local Skater community, as well as from Benavente City Council, in the person of Mr. Councilor Hélio Manuel Faria Justino, responsible for Sports.
THANKS:
- To all the skaters who alerted us to the urgency of the situation, and who collaborated with us.
- To the Municipal Council of Benavente, specifically to Mr. Councilor Hélio Justino for the prompt availability he demonstrated in answering our questions.
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Testimony from the Benavente Skater Community
Site Nacional de Skate: What is your name, and what do your friends call you?
Tomé: My name is Tomé.
Site Nacional de Skate: How long have you been skateboarding?
Tomé: I’ve been skateboarding for 4 years.
Site Nacional de Skate: What area in Portugal are you from?
Tomé: Benavente.
Site Nacional de Skate: How is the outlook for the Benavente Skater Community?
Tomé: There are more and more people wanting to skate, mostly younger kids, my group and I usually help them learn. There are also people who, due to the poor conditions of the SkatePark, become a little discouraged and stop going to the Benavente SkatePark so often, preferring other places to skate. In general, we are a united community, we get together whenever we can to skate and we try to innovate with the tools we have.
Site Nacional de Skate: Tell us a little about the History of the Benavente SkatePark.
Tomé: The Benavente SkatePark was built in 2009, I believe, by people who didn’t know much about Skateboarding. You can see some of the details of our park, but it wasn’t finished. What we have today in Benavente is the first part of a four-part project. The SkatePark was supposed to be bigger and more complete but the council abandoned the project because it stated that the SkatePark was “poorly attended”. Since it was built until now there have always been people and groups skateboarding but it has never had a large turnout due to its poor conditions.
Site Nacional de Skate: Who do you contact, and what type of response do you have when there are situations in your Skatepark that require intervention?
Tomé: When we need to talk to someone about the skatepark we usually contact Benavente City Council, not only me and my group, but also older skaters here in the area tried to ask the City Council for improvements but always without success. I myself had a meeting a few months ago with Mr. Councilor for Sports, where I exposed some of the problems of our SkatePark such as the lack of lighting, the lack of a drinking fountain and the various cracks and holes in the ramps and in the ground. Mr. The councilor told me to send a photo of the degraded parts, which I did, sending and re-sending the email several times to the Chamber and to Mr. Councilor but I never got any kind of response again.
Site Nacional de Skate: Are there currently any situations in your Skate Park that require attention?
Tomé: We have several situations in our park that need to be improved, there are several cracks and holes in the ground and on the ramps, the metal of the only box that exists is falling apart, we don’t have any type of night lighting, which makes it impossible to skate when it gets dark, we don’t have a drinking fountain, the ramps all have the iron coping too far inwards and our park is always dirty and full of stones due to the fact that inside the park there is an old climbing wall where the floor in that area instead of being cement is made of earth and small stones.
Basically, our skatepark suffers from problems that many other skateparks in small towns also suffer from.
Site Nacional de Skate: Has the National Skate Site and/or other skater communities, etc., helped you in the past in any way in publicizing your problems? (If yes, which ones and how?)
Tomé: No, we never had outside help with publicizing the situation at our park.
Site Nacional de Skate: Do you think it is important that the National Skate Site is a reference site where all “anonymous” skaters can make their voices heard? Why?
Tomé: I think it’s very important, because there are a lot of people like us here in Benavente who don’t have good conditions to skate and these cases need to be heard and publicized for something to happen and your platform has an important role in this matter.
Site Nacional de Skate: Do you want to leave us any suggestions or challenges?
Tomé: I hope you can help publicize more situations like Benavente’s and help more skaters across Portugal, and if you’re willing, you could give our City Council a word, so they understand that we really need changes in our SkatePark.
Site Nacional de Skate: We will contact the City Council and ask for clarification on what they have reported to us. Thank you very much for your time.
Tomé: Thank you for your help with publicity.
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C.M. de Benavente recognizes the Skate Park situation
Given the seriousness of the situation, we contacted the Municipal Council of Benavente, which immediately offered to provide the following clarifications through Mr. Councilor Hélio Manuel Faria Justino, who holds the following responsibilities: Private Works (Urbanization and Building), Urban Planning and Development Supervision, Traffic and Toponymy, Sports and Sports Equipment, Municipal Infrastructures, Hygiene and Health public buildings, Municipal Shipyards, Municipal Workshops and Fleet, Public Lighting.
Site Nacional de Skate: Is the Benavente City Council aware of the high level of degradation that the Skate Park is in, which puts the safety of all the athletes who practice sports there at serious risk? If yes, since when?
Sr. Vereador Hélio Justino: The City Council is aware that its Skate Parks, Benavente and Samora Correia, show some degradation, as a result of age and use, it does not believe that they place their users at a serious safety risk, but it is a matter to which we will give immediate attention.
Photos sent by Benavente Athletes/Skateboarders
Site Nacional de Skate: In what year did construction begin on the Benavente Skate Park? Is it true that it was over 10 years ago and it is still not finished?
Sr. Vereador Hélio Justino: The Benavente and Samora Correia Skate Parks are effectively over 10 years old. The Project included three phases of execution, with only the first phase remaining. The improper use of the spaces and the population’s protest regarding the inconvenience caused, especially in the Samora Correia Skate Park, which is very close to a residential area, have meant that the second and third phases have not been implemented so far.
Site Nacional de Skate: Benavente City Council is aware that Skateboarding is an Olympic sport registered with the C.O.I. whose sporting practice is duly regulated, and meets a rigorous safety and quality standard?
Sr. Vereador Hélio Justino: Yes. Personally, I was one of the many Portuguese people who proudly followed Gustavo Ribeiro’s journey live at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Fortunately, Benavente City Council has a very dynamic associative movement, with a diversified offer, which allows thousands of young people to practice sports and seeks to correspond with the qualification of spaces for this practice, however, as you can understand, it is a demanding task, which has been gradually pursued, to the extent of the municipality’s possibilities.
Site Nacional de Skate: Does Benavente City Council plan to carry out rehabilitation works at the Skate Park? If yes, when?
Sr. Vereador Hélio Justino: Yes. It is the intention of Benavente City Council during the current mandate to requalify its Skate Parks, considering the possibility of relocating the one in Samora Correia. Furthermore, some work in this direction has already been done by the municipality’s Sports Sector. We hope that this work can count on the active participation of practitioners from the Municipality. This was broadcast in November 2020, in a meeting with a young skateboarder, probably one of those who will be in this report. At the time, it was clearly said that in the period of time remaining from the previous mandate this intervention was impossible, given the financial demands of the significant set of works underway in the Municipality, but that for the mandate that began a month and a half ago, this would be one of the objectives to be achieved.
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CONCLUSION
The always difficult task of managing public money by our country’s local authorities is clearly evident in this particular case of the Benavente Skate Park. It could even be an unprecedented case in Portugal, as we are not aware of another Skate Park that took more than 10 years to build and is not yet finished.
It is known that any sports infrastructure needs maintenance to remain safe for athletes. A Skate Park that has not yet been completed after a decade obviously has a much higher level of degradation than if it had been maintained after completion.
Skateboarding is a global Olympic sport, and its practitioners are athletes, this is an unavoidable reality but whose recognition by local authorities is not homogeneous throughout the country. The lack of technical knowledge on the part of those who decide often leads (even with good will) to hand over the construction of these very specific sports infrastructures to companies that have no know-how in this sport, resulting in Skate Parks being unsuitable for the practice of Skateboarding.
There is still a long way to go before all athletes have access to public sports infrastructures that allow them to have equal opportunities to train and compete.
Photos sent by Benavente Athletes/Skateboarders
