Most skate park proposals get stuck in a council meeting. Someone raises noise, graffiti or antisocial behaviour, and nobody in the room has anything solid to say back.
This guide pulls together the published research we could find, who it was done by, and where it stops being useful. If you're a councillor, a community development officer or a parish clerk, you can use it to build a case that holds up under questions.
Who actually uses these spaces
Skateboard GB and Skateboard England, working with Sport England, put the number of active skateboarders in the UK at 750,000 when they announced the first national design guidance for skateparks. That is a large group of people, not a fringe interest. It also means a skate park or ride space is likely to serve more of your residents than you'd guess from the people you see there on a Tuesday afternoon.
What goes on in a skate park
The stereotype is trouble. The one study we found that actually tested it is small, but it's worth knowing.
In 2014, researchers in Western Australia surveyed 387 people about a small skate park in an inner suburb of Perth, and also sat and watched it for six two hour sessions. People reported pro-social behaviour, things like encouraging each other and sharing the space, as happening often or sometimes 91% of the time. Anti-social behaviour was reported 39% of the time, and the most common problems were crowding and collisions in a small space. Conflict, bullying and fighting were rare.
The limits matter. It was one park, it relied partly on what people said they saw, and the authors note it probably over-represented skateboarders. They also say plainly that actual evidence behind the negative claims people commonly make about skate parks is scant. Their practical conclusion is useful, though: careful choice of location, and involving young people in the design, reduced many of the problems people worry about.
What it does for the people using it
A 2010 study in the Journal of Adolescent Research by Graham Bradley looked at skate parks and adolescent development using interviews, observation and questionnaires. Despite how divided public opinion was about skate parks, the young people who used them reported personal adjustment and social connection similar to other adolescents. The author concluded that unstructured activity inside a skate park shows considerable potential for positive youth development.
More recently, a 2025 study in the International Review for the Sociology of Sport spoke to 32 young women skateboarders aged 8 to 27 in two English cities. They described benefits for their mental health: relief from anxiety and intrusive thoughts through concentration, belonging in girl only and woman only sessions, and resilience built by facing fear and failing repeatedly. They also named the downsides, including competitive pressure and performing for an audience.
Neither study proves a skate park will improve wellbeing in your town. Both give you a grounded picture of what young people say they get from them.
What it costs against what it returns
We didn't find a published return on investment figure for skate parks specifically, and we won't borrow one from somewhere else and pretend otherwise.
What does exist is a peer reviewed study of twelve community sport and leisure facilities run by Sheffield City Trust, using 2014 and 2015 data. It found £1.20 of social value for every £1 invested overall, and £2.01 of external benefit for every £1 of council subsidy. That isn't about skate parks. It shows how councils can measure the return on community sport spending, and that a well used facility can show a positive one.
If you're taking a specific proposal to committee, the strongest move is to commission or run a local social value assessment using the same method, with your own usage numbers.
What the evidence can't tell you
You'll see claims online that a skate park cut local antisocial behaviour by a stated percentage after opening. Some of them are quotes from a police officer or a council without any published data behind them. We left those out. If a number can't be traced to a study or an official dataset, don't put it in a committee paper.
The honest summary is this. The research shows skate parks are mostly used in positive ways, and young people who use them report real benefits. There isn't yet strong evidence that a skate park changes crime figures or makes a measurable difference to a town's economy.
Building the case in your own town
- Count who would use it. Survey local young people, schools and existing skaters, scooter riders and BMX riders.
- Involve young people in the design from the start, not at the consultation stage.
- Choose the site carefully and look at how it relates to housing, lighting and existing footfall.
- Plan who will run sessions and look after it. A space with someone activating it gets used differently from one that's left alone.
- Agree what you'll measure before you build: visits, who's using it, complaints, and what young people say about it.
If you'd like to talk through a proposal or run community sessions in an existing space, get in touch at hello@horngry.net or visit our For Councils page.
Sources
- Wood, L., Carter, M. and Martin, K. (2014). Dispelling Stereotypes… Skate Parks as a Setting for Pro-Social Behavior among Young People. Current Urban Studies, 2(1), 62 to 73.
- Bradley, G. L. (2010). Skate Parks as a Context for Adolescent Development. Journal of Adolescent Research, 25(2), 288 to 323.
- Paechter, C., Keenan, M., Stoodley, L. and Lawton, C. (2025). 'Free therapy': Young woman skateboarders, mental health and body self-compassion. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 60(2).
- Davies, L. E., Taylor, P., Ramchandani, G. and Christy, E. (2020). Measuring the Social Return on Investment of community sport and leisure facilities.pdf). Managing Sport and Leisure.
- Skateboard GB, Skateboard England and Sport England. Design and Development Guidance for Skateboarding.