Wicor skate park in Portchester shuts today for a concrete rebuild, with Stubbington to follow later this year. The council's tender put the job at £190,000.

Work to tear out the metal skate ramps at Wicor Recreation Ground in Portchester and replace them with concrete ones starts today, Monday 21 September. Fareham Borough Council says the park will reopen “towards the end” of the year. Stubbington skate park gets the same treatment, starting later in the year.

The council’s own skate parks page gives the start date as Monday 21 September. Its press release, issued three days earlier, says Monday 20 September, which was a Sunday. The page is the later of the two and is the one we have followed here.

Both parks close while the work is done. The council says they will reopen “towards the end” of the year, “subject to weather, ground conditions and any potential unforeseen circumstances”. Neither park has a published reopening date.

What is being built

The existing ramps are metal and have worn out. The council says the replacements use “more durable and robust materials”, which means poured concrete rather than sheet metal on a frame.

Wicor gets a street design. The council describes a central spine linking two zones, a transition zone anchored by a halfpipe at one end and a street section at the other, so riders can link obstacles into a run rather than hit them one at a time. The published feature list is:

  • a halfpipe and mini ramp
  • an extended quarter pipe
  • a roll over
  • two flat banks
  • a raised platform
  • a level change driveway
  • a grind rail
  • a hubba ledge
  • a quarter pipe

Stubbington gets a flowing design. This one uses changes in ground level to build momentum, which the council says answers feedback that the current park “lacks flow” and that its features “feel too isolated and close together”. The published feature list is:

  • two quarter pipes of different heights
  • a flat bank
  • a rollover
  • a volcano
  • a hipped flat bank pyramid
  • a bowled zone

Both parks are meant to suit beginners through to experienced skaters, scooter riders and BMX riders, and the council says both will be accessible to wheelchair users. The surrounding areas get tidied up, shelters and line markings repainted, and new signage and repairs.

The money the press release leaves out

The council’s announcement gives no cost. Its own tender notice does.

Fareham Borough Council advertised the job on Find a Tender on 14 January 2026, under the title “New skate parks at Stubbington and Wicor Recreation Grounds”. The notice puts the estimated total value at £190,000 excluding VAT, or £228,000 including VAT, and says it is above the relevant procurement threshold.

Three further details in that notice are worth having.

  • Quality was weighted at 90 per cent and cost at 10 per cent, with social value making up 15 points of the quality score. That is an unusually heavy tilt away from price for a job of this size.
  • The estimated contract ran from 29 March to 23 October 2026. Stubbington is now starting “later in the year”, so the work is running past the window the council advertised.
  • No award notice has been published against the procurement. The record on Find a Tender still holds only the tender notice, so the price the council has actually agreed is not public.

The contractor named in the council’s announcement is Bendcrete Leisure Limited, which Companies House records as company 03220846, incorporated on 5 July 1996 and registered at Aquaduct Mill, Tame Street, Stalybridge in Cheshire. It was previously called Bendcrete Climbing Walls Limited.

Who designed them

The designs came out of a consultation on the council’s Let’s Talk Fareham platform that ran from 3 November to 1 December 2025, with two possible designs put forward for each park.

The council says thousands of comments came back, and that two riders helped refine the designs: Declan Brooks, the BMX rider who competed at the Olympics, and Noah Tiller, who the council says is ranked 32nd in the World Skate men’s park scootering rankings. Those descriptions are the council’s own.

Councillor Frair Burgess, the council’s Executive Member for Leisure and Community, said in the announcement: “The public consultations showed just how much people care about these facilities and their feedback was invaluable in creating our designs.”

What it means for you

  • If you ride at Wicor, the park is out of use from today. The council has not said for how long, only that it should be back “towards the end” of the year.
  • If you ride at Stubbington, nothing changes yet. That closure comes “later in the year”, and no date has been published.
  • The borough’s other four skate parks stay open. The council manages six in total, listed by ward on its skate parks page, in Fareham, Portchester, Locks Heath, Stubbington and Titchfield.
  • If you are driving to Wicor Recreation Ground, note that the Wicor Recreation car park is one of the ten coastal car parks that charge every day, 10am to 6pm. Our parking in Fareham page has the tariffs.
  • For roadworks and travel this week, including the four nights of M27 junction 9 slip closures, see our Fareham roadworks and travel page.

More Fareham local information: bin collection days, council tax bands and things to do in Fareham.

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