THE much-awaited new Park Kronberg skatepark could be built in time for the school summer holidays, with work due to begin next month.

Councillors heard at a meeting of Aberystwyth Town Council this week that negotiations between Ceredigion County Council, acting as agents for the town council, and the designers, Freestyle Skateparks, had become bogged down in discussions over a bond.

It was revealed in November that the town council had been successful in its bid for a £440,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund to revamp the run-down skatepark at Boulevard St Brieuc. This came after an initial application in December 2015 was refused by the Big Lottery because of a lack of evidence of support from the community.

But after a campaign to encourage people to fill in a survey showing their support for the project, as reported in the Cambrian News, the application was successful.

Councillors heard this week that the town council was requesting a bond of between £8,000 and £10,000 from Freestyle, but the company told the council that this would have delayed the start of the project by another four weeks.

Cllr Mererid Boswell, née Jones, who spearheaded the application, told councillors that Freestyle boss Julian Lipton had instead offered a “personal guarantee” of 10 per cent of the contract value in order for the works to start right away.

See this week’s Aberystwyth edition for the full story, in shops and online now