A VIDEO promoting the Dracaena Skate Park project has been released on Youtube in a bid to attract money to the project which could cost up to one million pounds.

Concerns were raised at Falmouth Town Council last year about the escalating costs for the skatepark on Dracaena Playing Fields after it increased to around £1m.

Councillors were told that although the skatepark costs as tendered by its designers Maverick remain the same, basically £525k, the other costs were around the necessary landscaping, access road, car park and contingency requirements had pushed the overall cost up.

At the time the total cost of construction of the so-called Falmouth Plaza was £525,000, drainage connections £7,000, incidentals £20,000, trees and landscaping £25,000, cables and works around children' play area around £30,000

All together that came to around £889,000 with contingency costs of £133,000, making it around a million pounds all together, although, with the current economic climate, these are likely to have gone up even more. Planning permission for the park was granted in September 2021.

The video commissioned by Falmouth Town Council and narrated by deputy mayor Kirsty Edwards will be used to raise awareness and funds. It is linked to YouTube as it makes it easy to send a link to prospective investors.

In the video, Richard May, charity manager at the nearby Dracaena Centre, explains how he works with a large catchment area with young families and how important the park will be to them.

"We know there are a lot of people of different ages that are going to use the skate park," he said."We have thousands and thousands of people coming through the centre reach year who have a positive outlook on the skatepark. We have an extensive youth service here and, before the pandemic, were working with 200 to 250 young people a week.

"We also have feedback from the community about young people hanging around. Some see it as anti-social behaviour, other people see young people just congregating, chatting and having a nice time.

"However, with the skate park facility, there are a lot of the young people we are seeing on the street that want it to be there. They want to come down and use it and want to be involved in its development and its growth. So for us working with young people, reducing a perceived anti-social behaviour element can only be a positive thing."

Alex Brinnen from the Falmouth Skatepark Project, says that Falmouth has the highest population of under eighteens in the whole of Cornwall but there is nothing specifically for young people to do.

"It's really important for young people to have a space of their own," he says. "If we build something really good, they manage it themselves, people take ownership of the space and look after it. They take pride in these spaces and it is really important with valuable lessons for kids to learn. You find that they actually stop anti-social behaviour because it is a place for them to meet and they don't want that taken away."