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Great Yarmouth Borough Council
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Hall Plain
Great Yarmouth.
NR30 2QF.

Tel:
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PR 199

14 June 2006



Chewy Cannon in flight was an awesome sight as he helped opened the new skatepark at Southtown Common on Saturday June 10.

Chewy, a professional skateboarder who grew up in Gorleston, wowed spectators with his skills.

The skatepark, funded by the Big Lottery, was the idea of the Gorleston Youth Partnership, who have spent the last two years working hard on this project raising money and carrying out community consultations to ensure everyone was behind them.
Kids of all ages had the opportunity on Saturday to try skateboarding and learn from the experts.

“Everyone was very enthusiastic,” said Great Yarmouth Borough Council Environmental Strategy Officer Emma Dixon - whose role is to oversee play projects being carried out under the Big Lottery Funding received by the Borough Council.

“We had nearly 100 people attending the event and Chewy was superb - a great role model for the youngsters here. We had a jam session - a competition whereby the kids are asked to skate and ride for an hour whilst judges assess their skills.

“The winner received a signed Chewy Cannon skatedeck.”

This project is the sixth of 10 benefiting from a grant to the Borough Council totalling £400,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.

An invitation to the residents of Gorleston to choose the design for a new children’s playground, another Big Lottery Fund initiative, saw 562 people vote.

The winning design will be on display in Gorleston Library next week.

For further information call Environmental Strategy Manager Simon Mutten on 01493 846449.

Picture captions:
1 Chewy Cannon in flight

Big Lottery Fund
Big Lottery Fund is the joint co-operating name of the New Opportunities Fund and the National Lottery Charities Board (which make grants under the name of the Community Fund). Big Lottery Fund, launched on 1 June 2004, is distributing half of all national Lottery good cause funding across the UK.

Big Lottery Fund is building on the experience and best practice of the merged bodies to simplify funding in those areas where they overlap and to ensure Lottery funding provides the best possible value for money. To date, the two merged Funds have committed more than £5 billion to initiatives with national, regional and local partners from the public, voluntary, charity and private sectors with a particular focus on disadvantage.

Issued by:
Liz Dann
Press Officer
Great Yarmouth Borough Council
01493 846513