A youth recreation space featuring a skate park, basketball court and ping pong table is planned for Rushcutters Bay Park

A world-class youth recreation space will provide an alternative to the overcrowded skate park at Bondi

Rory Doyle, Matt and Alex Higgins-Titsha at the site in Rushcutters Bay Park where the new youth recreation facility will be built. Photo: Daniel Aarons

A WORLD-CLASS youth recreation space featuring a skate park, basketball court and ping pong table is on the cards for Rushcutters Bay Park.

Woollahra Council plans to build the facility, which will be the first of its kind in the municipality, early next year.

But if Woollahra loses its appeal against the planned merger with Randwick and Waverley, it would be up to the new super council to sign off on the project.

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Paddington skater Rory Doyle said the space would address a severe shortage of recreation facilities in the area for teenagers.

An early concept design for the new skate park planned at the park. Source: CONVIC

“The nearest skate park is Bondi and it’s so crowded you barely get a go on anything,” said Rory.

“I only get to skate two days a week but if there was a skate park in Rushcutters Bay I would come every day.”

Basketball player Alex Higgins-Titsha said the nearest place to shoot some hoops outdoors was Moore Park or Hyde Park on a rainy day.

A CONVIC designed skate park at X-Dubai Kite Beach

“I can’t play after school because it’s too far away so it will be really good to come play down here,” he said.

Both young men had started lobbying the council about three years ago to urge them to build a skate park.

The space would be designed by Melbourne-based CONVIC, which has created more than 700 action sports facilities around the world including skate parks at Dubai’s Kite Beach, St Kilda, Fremantle and Collie in WA and the extreme sports park in Singapore.

The Fremantle Esplanade youth plaza, also by CONVIC

Paddington councillors Matthew Robertson and Peter Cavanagh, who had pushed hard for the project, said the facility was badly needed in the face of shrinking backyards.

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CONVIC senior landscape architect Alaric Hellawell said the skate park would be of a “plaza style”.

“It will include beginner to intermediate ledges, rails, kicker to kicker, manual pad, quarter pipes and banks,” he said.

Mother Terry Higgins said the youth space would encourage teenagers get away from the computer and get outdoors.

Mother Terry Higgins with her sons Matt and Alex Higgins-Titsha with Jill Livesey and her son Rory Doyle. They say the youth space will be well used

“There’s a lot of facilities for young children and off-leash dog areas but nowhere for young teens to hang out,” she said.

Mayor Toni Zeltzer said the park was an ideal location because it would link to the sports field, playground, outdoor gym and walking track.

It would be built between the canal and the kiosk on the grass near the outdoor gym and would not impinge on any existing facilities.

The council has so far allocated $350,000 in the budget but would need to allocate more once the council, if it still exists, considers the project later this year.

The community are invited to a workshop to view and comment on concept designs this Saturday, August 13 from 11.30am-1.30pm at the park.