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Search forIce skating tops your wish list
Monday, November 03, 2008, 09:03
But the biggest ever survey of the leisure wish-list for their age group revealed a wide range of aspirations.
Nearly 2,500 young people returned the questionnaires sent to every secondary school in the Bay by the Herald Express.
And their choice of out-of-school activity was as wide as the Bay with a total of 2,898 suggestions covering 89 themes.
These ranged from an indoor skate park, to street racing, from free swimming for under 16s to kitesurfing lessons.
The top ten activities in which young people told us they wanted to take part were:
Ice skating
Football
Under 18 night club
General sports provision
Paintball
Music
Swimming
Theme parks
Water sports.
Naturally there were some wild and off-the-wall ideas like a hippodrome for chariot racing, a Disneyland for Devon and an all-year wave maker for surfing in the sea.
But many of the activities that the youngsters dream of are already provided somewhere in the Bay or surrounding area.
The aim of the Chill! campaign is to link the providers of those facilities with the young people, and encourage them to offer free taster sessions.
When asked how much they would be willing to pay for their sessions, the majority of teenagers of course said nothing. But generally they said they wouldn't mind paying between £2 and £5 per session, and quite a few said as much as £10.
Among the ideas raised by the different age groups include trampolining, better swimming facilities, mountain biking, music events as well as tuition for example in guitar, squash courts, hand gliding, a velodrome for competitive cycling, shooting range, dance studios, gymnastics, drama/dance.
Other suggestions included snowboarding/skiing, horseriding/ rock climbing/ fitness gym, more apparatus in parks, a warm place to hang out in at night, youth clubs/centres, a place to have rock concerts.
Another popular theme was cheaper/free and more regular bus travel for young people so they can access facilities more easily.
Life is obviously not sweet enough for one pupil who wanted a giant sweet shop.
Of the 227 plus who wanted to go ice skating, around five per cent wanted to play ice hockey rather than go dancing on ice.
The 180 who wanted to play football were interested in five-a-side and team games, beach and charity football, competitions, improved facilities including indoor pitches and girls football.
The third most popular facility was an under 18 night club. Most of the 121 who responded wanted a disco and nightclub.
When it came to general sports most of the 120 wanted more facilities, including clubs to join, competitions to take part in, and tuition.
When it came to paintball, some of the 113 were keen to combine it with quad bike riding.
The majority of the 98 skateboarding youngsters wanted a skate park, and several called for the Paignton skate park to be finished. Another sizeable group wanted indoor facilities.
A venue for playing and hearing music was a popular choice with 95 pupils, with some suggesting a revival of the facilities offered by the now closed Bit on the Side in Paignton, as well as a club, a competition, a music studio and tuition.
Better swimming facilities were in demand, with 94 pupils wanting either, or both, an Olympic sized venue and a leisure pool.
A Disneyland or a roller coaster theme park were also high on the wish list for 88 pupils.
Of the 77 wanting to take advantage of Torbay's existing water sports park — Tor Bay — they were keen to do some speedboating, surfing, wakeboarding, waterskiing, windsurfing, sailing, rowing, jet skiing, diving, canoing and banana boating.
The next most popular ideas were youth clubs, shopping, outward bound, ball games, a cheap or free bus pass, basket ball, trampolining, go karting, winter sports, and dance.
These were followed by parks, adventure parks, biking, a chill zone, shooting, tennis, computers, performing arts, and astro turf and BMX biking.
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