NO date has yet been set for Settle’s long-awaited skate park project to begin despite the backing of the majority of the community and the promise of Sport England funding if a suitable site is found.

The skate park was initially earmarked for a site off Bond Lane but an outcry last year forced a rethink by Settle Town Council and a plot adjacent to the swimming pool was found.

The land is owned by North Yorkshire County Council which has yet to clarify whether it will lease the land to the town council. This agreement is vital to obtain funding from Sport England which has ring-fenced around £50,000 funding until the end of this financial year. The criteria is that the council must own or be signed up to a long lease on the land.

After that the town council may have to re-apply for financial support for the project which is expected to cost around £125,000.

At a meeting of the town council on Monday, councillors were told another sticking point was Settle College which had expressed concerns of safeguarding as the skate park site was adjacent to a footpath used by pupils to access a sports field.

The college, said it wanted to see a 3D image of the proposed skate park showing where the agreed CCTV, lighting, where the fence would be placed and how wide the path would be..

Settle town council clerk Rebecca Hill said the council was working with the college to address their concerns and said the company which will construct the skate park was willing to create a 3D visualisation for the college at no charge to the council.

In the meantime she had written to Sport England to let them know the current circumstances and to ask what was likely to happen to the funding at the year end.

The county council is understood to have had a meeting with the college before Christmas and the town council is waiting to hear the outcome of the meeting.

In the meantime, the town council’s skate park steering group has agreed to meet on January 16 to discuss progress with the project.