Abandoned sports centre may become first national skate park

An abandoned sports centre that escaped demolition after being turned into a backup Covid morgue could get a new role as Britain's first national skateboarding park.

- Matthew Weaver

Andy Macdonald, the skateboarder who was called the "Rad Dad" after competing in the Paris Olympics at the age of 51, is among those backing plans to reinvent the brutalist Richard Dunn sports centre in Bradford.

"It would be the only Olympic-sized course in the UK and would allow skateboarders a place to skate year-round, where they could learn and develop up to a level to compete at international events," he said.

The plans submitted in the runup to Bradford's year as the UK city of culture - also involve facilities for other action sports popularised at the Paris Olympics, such as bouldering, climbing and BMX, as well as parkour and wheelchair motocross.

They are presented as a solution to a building that has become a symbol of urban decay and a focus for arson attacks and vandalism.