Above photo: Trevor Johnson, Pivot fakie

Kettering council are currently attempting to pass a ‘Public Spaces Protection Order’ which would herald a ban on skateboarding within the town centre. It seems as if even with skateboarding in the place it is in now, certain councils are still willfully vilifying us as nuisances and shoving us under the umbrella term of ‘anti social behaviour’. Understandably, the local skateboarders are up in arms and have enlisted the help of Long Live Southbank to take up their case. Have a read of what they have sent to the council as a joint letter with Chopper Skate Shop and the Kettering Skatepark and Friends group as well as their own, flick through for some photos of skating in the town by Matt Clarke, and don’t forget to sign the petition against the ban…here are some quotes from the town’s skaters.

Chris ‘Rogie’ Rogerson:

“I can remember skating the taxi rank when I was around 14-15 an elderly lady was watching us skate for at least an hour, we sat down and talked to her, she loved that we were doing something different and offered us money for keeping her entertained, we didn’t take it.

We roll around on pieces of wood, have more fun and a tighter friendship than most people I know, if I didn’t skate I don’t know what I’d be doing with my spare time, people need to view skateboarding a bit differently and maybe you’ll realise why we love it so much.”

Callum McRobbie – Beanplant

Mark at Chopper Skateshop:

This has come totally out of the blue ,the council never approached us to let us know there was a problem , so we didn’t have a chance to try and tackle any issues before making skateboarding a criminal offence. The fact that the PSPO is part of a new anti social behaviour law seems ridiculous as skateboarding is one of the most sociable things I know of!