Challenge

As part of the Newquay Transport Strategy, a new set of traffic lights was installed at the Chester Road Shopping Complex. One of the roads approaching these lights was three-lane, and it was decided to reduce this to two lanes for safety reasons. The third lane on one side was broken up and replaced with a mixture of hard and soft landscaping.

The centre-piece of this was a beautiful Escofet seat from Barcelona in polished black concrete. Unfortunately, within 24 hours of installation, the local skateboarders were using the bench to do stunts. This caused the bench to become scratched and intimidated people from using it.

Solution

Cornwall County Council discovered from External Works that Sportsmark Group Ltd manufactured and sold a range of anti-social studs designed to discourage, amongst other things, skateboarding in inappropriate places.

These studs have a 25mm diameter domed head of various shapes on a 30mm long shank, and are available in brass or stainless steel. Cornwall County Council decided that stainless steel would look best in this situation. Cormac went ahead and ordered them, and they were delivered the following day.

The studs were initially fixed into the hole drilled for them using a gap-filling adhesive. Unfortunately, before the adhesive set, someone had managed to prise 4 studs out of their sockets. More studs were fixed using a 2-pack adhesive and happily they are still there today.

Outcome

Newquay Transport Strategy Manager, Richard Moore, said: "We are very pleased with the results. The bench still looks very good and is comfortable to sit on, yet we have completely discouraged the skateboarders".