Some of you may have turned up to Clitheroe to skate over the past few weeks and found it locked even when it's been dry.

Well the reason is that part of the park's floor, the bit between the bowl and the plaza, had been degenerating. Something to do with the original concrete mix. If you notice the plaza's surface is much nicer.

Anyway this, 'cheese grater' surface as it'd been nicknamed needed some work.

I won't bore you with the details but they wanted some dry weather so the chemicals had a chance to work without being washed away. The forecast was good over half term and as you know you have to grab dry weather when you can!

After much debate and after consulting some engineers the team who run the park decided on a course of action;  

"we looked up a company that specialises in floor finishes who sent some guys along with cool machines (that look just like those buffers that caretakers use on school floors, but instead of having pads to shine the floor, it had diamond plates to grind down the floor giving a smooth finish... and a massive hoover thing that looked a bit like big bertha! haha) which they brought along to do a sample patch.  They then sprayed over the top of it with impregnator which solidified the weak & flakey concrete mix leaving it smooth & solid as it should be."

So there you have it... Now go skate!

On a related note Clitheroe skatepark is still FREE to everyone.