Abstract
Conflicts between users of urban spaces can be resolved by careful consultation,
planning and design, as a case study of the creation of a skatepark within a
vestpocket park indicates. Woolley and Johns in 2001 wrote about the conflicts
between skaters and other users of city centre spaces; and our paper evaluates
what happened next, when the city planners and skateboarders collaborated in
the design of a purpose-built skate park.
We sampled patterns of park use, and employed questionnaires and cognitive
mapping techniques to evaluate the park as a whole; while interviews with the
skateboarders enabled us to evaluate the new facility’s success in meeting the
four criteria of accessibility, sociability, trickability and compatability.
Not only are potential conflicts resolved, but the presence of this new activity
Is positively evaluated by the other users, the local residents, local businesses.
In a city such as Sheffield, some of the activities of youth may bring them into
conflict with older citizens, even when those activities are energetic, skilled, and
give young citizens a sense of self worth. Skateboarding is just such an activity,
and this paper is a study of how careful planning which involves those young
people can help resolve conflicts