A FAMOUS skate park that was once destined to be bulldozed to make way for a sports centre will get improvements instead.
Harrow Skate Park is one of the UK's few remaining facilities built in the distinctive style of the 1970s and lies outside Harrow Leisure Centre, in Christchurch Avenue, Wealdstone.
It attracts around 120 BMX bikers, skaters and skateboarders each week but the skate park was once threatened to be ripped up and replaced by a modern version as part of the Tory-controlled Harrow Council's intent to replace the leisure centre - a project abandoned in the face of the recession as land values plummeted.
The decision to upgrade the park has delighted its regular users.
Rob Adler, chairman of Harrow Skate Park user group, said: "We are very lucky to have a facility like this in Harrow; it is nationally, and indeed internationally, known.
"It is good news that this piece of sporting heritage is being preserved and improved."
The Harrow authority will install three spine ramps that are 20ft wide and five-and-a-half feet high. These will be connected to a new four-foot high mini-ramp.
The steel and wood additions - which are described as 'vandal proof' - will be built near to the freestyle area of the park.
An old concrete ramp will be demolished to make more space for the enhancements.
The council also intends to carry out work to improve drainage designed to stop the low-lying features becoming flooded in bad weather.
Work on the new fixtures will start later this month and take six weeks - in time for the Easter school holidays.
BMX bike enthusiast and Harrow Skate Park regular James Hitchcox said: "A lot of skate parks now are built to a kit formula and are very similar.
"The one in Harrow is unique because it was hand-sculpted. That makes it much more challenging to users as the surface is very individual and you really have to know it by riding it.
"The new ramps will be a great new addition and the skating community are really looking forward to them going up."
Councillor Susan Hall (Conservative), Harrow Council's portfolio holder for the environment, said: "Harrow Council has worked with the skateboard enthusiasts and local community to fund and help devise a really imaginative new layout."
