Barossa Loop Park Improvements

This is such a disappointing decision from the Council. It is so hard to develop well thought out open space for young people, and then you have decided to remove one.

Worst decision ever. Total waste of rate payers money. Stop & listen to the community. Noone wants this facility removed.

This is incredibly disappointing to hear! Our family and many in the community have benefitted from the skatepark and facilities. It is a poor use of resources that could be better used actually improving the area instead of removing one of the few areas where our young people can connect and enjoy the recreational space. I implore the necessary people to reconsider this terrible decision.

 I skate here daily. These noises have been manipulated to push the agenda of knocking it down. People buying houses knew what they were buying into. Be great for the community to know theyre blowing $280k to remove a recreational area for kids and adults, that is used and respected all the time. The time they measured the noise was during peak school holidays. What about the other 11 months? Because i come here daily and theres barely a noise to be heard. This is a disgusting decision and i will make sure there's plenty of noise being made if its knocked down

Removed by moderator.

A difficult but wise decision by City of Armadale. It was expected that people that are not impacted by skating noise will show their frustration without understanding any of the facts. The noise report is about Skating noise - its not about little children playing in the park. No one has any problem with that. There is big difference in these two. As a local resident I can confirm that whenever the Skate Park was used, the noise levels were unbearable. That click clack of skateboards on hard concrete from morning to evening and late night - the noise was so high that the residents could not even sit in their backyards peacefully. The noise in the rooms even with windows closed was unbearable. This is all validated by noise report. Apart from noise report, I have seen people driving cars on top of Skate ramps to light it up for skating at 11 pm at night. Just recently there was a car on top of skate ramps that narrowly missed kids as it reversed back down the skate ramps. There have been people driving dirt bikes at mid night on skate ramps. I have seen people skating with beer bottles and cigarettes in their hands, then trying to skate on top of metal shelter, urinating from top of shelter, explicit music at 6:30 am in the morning, adults urinating in garden beds and much more. I am hoping that COA will plan a better skate park in coming days in Harrisdale with all the facilities that people need to fully enjoy skating like toilets etc and secure location and plus with enough distance from homes.

It seems such a shame that we will lose this fantastic facility which we so frequently love to visit. As a mother of 2 young kids we find these facilities so useful and attractive within our tight knit community. Each time we have visited the park it has been so well utilised by the community - usually lots of kids and families visiting to make use of the facilities. And it is lovely to see kids (and their parents a lot of the time) out there having a great time and giving it a go!

Our children love the fact that we have access to these safe and open places for them to learn to ride, scoot, skate etc and catch-up with friends without playing in the streets which in itself poses dangerous risks to the children and nuisance to drivers. If these facilities are taken away where do you think these children will play? At the local shopping centre, McDonalds… leading to more antisocial behaviour? I’d much rather children playing happily, being active and having healthy fun outdoors.

We need more facilities like this within our neighbourhood to keep our children/youth active and engaged rather than roaming the streets with pure boredom resulting in unwanted activity and crime no doubt. Currently there are a lot of young children kids in the area, but they won’t stay young forever and I feel the area actually lacks more activities and options for our older teenage children/youth.

If the noise is too loud and all hours of the night then there should be restricted time for use and limited lighting at night. Why can’t we get security through our suburbs like the city of Cockburn do? Then the restricted times can be easily maintained. The discussion of security patrols through our suburbs has been mentioned time and time again when the discussion of our absurd rates comes about each year, so this could easily be achieved.

You mention other alternatives:
*Armadale skate park orchard avenue - 12 km away
*Gwynn’s skate park - 12 km away
*Ref Williams reserve - 10 km away
*Ticklie park skate park - 9 km away
*Cross park skate park Roleystone - 22 km away

These are NOT by any mean accessible to the children/youth who live in our community. They simply can NOT ride or skate to these parks to catch-up with their friends. We literally have nothing like this in our community!

Also replacing this facility with gardens will just add more maintenance work for the city of Armadale which barely keeps up with required maintenance for the already existing parks and gardens…

Also why weren’t we advised of this proposal. We only found out about this through social media AFTER the decision had been made… this is not good enough!

I just feel like the option of demolition would be taking far too much away from the community.

The very first time I visited the Skate park with my kids, my first impression was 'wow, that just next to homes, literally opposite people's bedroom". I read the noise report and understand the whole issue is the location of skatepark. Reading the comments below from many people was very disappointing. The comments doesn't reflect that we live in a progressive educated society. The noise report can't be clearer. The main issue is the location of skate ramps proximity to homes - The City has done everything they could do before deciding the removal of the skate park. And they honestly wants to include community in building new skate facilities in the area , which is awesome. Well done City for this great initiative.

Disgusting decision once again from the COA. Taking away a great low maintenance skate/activity facility and replacing with gardens is not going to be suitable/appealing for the local youth.
The Armadale council has already proven that they are not capable of maintaining any type of landscaping in the Harrisdale area once handed over by developers and adding to that is going to create an eye sore and neglected patch of land.
Public consultation has been very poor. I have lived locally for over 13 years, use the skate park with my kids almost daily and did not receive anything from the council regarding removing this facility.
The money being spent on removing the skate park would be better spent installing some CCTV or putting the ranger on some overtime and informing people at the skate park if they are creating ‘excessive’ noise.

Terrible decision COA. Any day of the week you can find heaps of families & kids outdoors having fun and enjoying the facility. Our community needs this sort of facility. COA published a list of alternatives, non of these are within reach of the kids that attend this park. The reasons stated for the decision is anti social behaviour - yet there is no evidence of graffiti, broken glass, undesirables hanging around etc & as a local resident not once have we witnessed any anti social behaviour at that site. How many times has COA, or the Police been called to attend? I'll bet there were very few if any at all. Also I strongly object to this massive waste of Rate payers money, totally inappropriate.How many complaints have there been?

I think the new plans provide a space for families to enjoy which is a closer example of what the developer provided to customers at the time of purchase. It's unfortunate that feedback prior to the skatepark approval was only sought from the end user and not the people who would be living there!
The community response to the changes are disappointing with name calling unnecessary, however I do believe most have not educated themselves with facts detailed in the sound report. At no time has anyone one made complaint about children playing! It's mostly adults playing basketball and or skating at crazy times of the evening (yes, even in the dark!), sometimes as late as midnight, and other times as early as 5.30am (at times with music blaring) on any day of the week. In summer months this occurs almost on a daily basis. It has become a 24/7 park, thanks to selfish adults, not the children. I guess the community can be forgiven for their ignorance as visiting a park during daylight hours is very different to living there. I feel for the residents just 8 or so meters from the basketball court. Immediate residents are also rate payers and have a right to live without constant noise at levels which are over and above legal limits.
I believe COA will provide a new amazing facility in a more compliant location as the facilities for older kids are very much needed.

A lot of people have been expressing their disappointment over removal of Skate park but none has mentioned if they have read and understood the noise assessment report from City Of Armadale. The noise report is very clear that City is removing this as a last resort as nothing else could be done to mitigate the noise as the noise levels are too high and homes are too close. The Skate ramps are literally outside people's bedroom. People here have shown utmost selfish behaviour basically saying "my kids play here so I don't care how the noise levels are impacting on people's lives who live next to skate park." The noise from children's play is not an issue at all. The main problem as mentioned in the noise report is skating noise.
The noise from skating is like hammer hitting on the head and these poor people have to bear it 7 days a week from morning to late evening. ( Plus that balring explicit music).

I hope all these people who are complaining on this post, had gone to meet with City officials and councilors few weeks ago when community was invited to discuss location and plans for Skate Parks in Harrisdale and Piare Water.
Well done to City of Armadale for correcting this error - I sincerely believe we will have a nice skate park in a better location in Harrisdale for everyone to enjoy very soon.

With the amount of kids living in Harrisdale and Piara waters, Armadale should be building facilities to entertain them as they get older, gosnells has a skate park, youth community centre and actively engages kids and teens to combat antisocial behaviour, yet Armadale council is set to remove a well used skate park all paid by the rate payers. Having something accessable for kids/teens to access on foot is important to combat destructive and antisocial behaviour

While it is disappointing that this youth space is being removed it’s even more disappointing that the COA approved a non compliant park to begin with. Hopefully next time they will get it right.

As a local resident I can confirm there was NO consultation with local residents. Even trying to get information about the original complaints was difficult.

When we purchased our land - very close to the skate park - this was a huge selling point.

The skate park, basketball hoop, playground and the surrounding park is a great facility for kids and families in the area.

What an incredible waste of rate payers money to remove it!
This is an extremely disappointing decision City of Armadale.

This is extremely disappointing. We live so close to this park and have not experienced any antisocial behaviour or noise issues. Today I watched many families enjoying this space, as they do everyday. Ripping the park out (at a huge cost to the rate payers) because of a small number of complainants is a joke - the minority have just killed the enjoyment of so many in the community.
The alternative list of skate parks provided by CoA are not reasonable options - children cannot get themselves there without being driven by parents. Originally, the facility was meant to provide an enjoyable outdoor space catering for older children as well as younger. The City of Armadale even acknowledged the lack of options available for older children. Now they will go back inside on games as once again there will be a lack of facilities available to them. One of the beautiful things i regularly see is the way the older children look out for the younger children in the park.
I would have liked to receive a letter/survey prior to the decision being made to rip out the park, as I am sure many others would have too - the consultation process has failed the community, not giving the community at large the opportunity to have a say.
Bad decision City of Armadale, for the community and for the rate payers (what a huge wasted expense).

Have a look at the demographics. Seems to be a lot of families with teen, and pre teenagers. If you put high density housing in you hvecto account for everyone. Activity parks for kids are important and there limited other parks in the area. You will now force more kids onto paths and roads so will be interesting to see how that pans out for you CoA.

Very disappointing that the COA is taking away a highly used resource for the local kids. But wait, they offered options for other skate parks, none that are in the local area. All that have to be driven to.
Poor planning at the development stage to not consider the noise implications to residents who are now complaining, knowing they bought a property near a park where children would be making noise!!
Not only are the COA now planning to spend $200k, that wasn't in their budget, they are now adding in more garden and vegetation that they will not be able to maintain. Just look at the verges and parks in the area that have been handed over to the COA!
Also, what a poor understanding of sustainability, generating waste and now using more water to maintain the park.

What a shame to removing kids activity park. Now I am wondering where teen should go and play?

This is really upsetting and disappointing news! I have two young kids and we are visiting this park very often. We love going there! We are always having so much fun there. Is there anything that we can do to change the decision?