The organiser of a petition calling for upgrades to Saltworks Farm skate park is asking members of the community to help her make the area a more secure and inclusive space for people to enjoy.

Helen Watson has been visiting Saltworks to engage with its younger users and deter antisocial behaviour every night for the past two months, and now feels in need of further support from other residents.

"We just need a few more people on board," Helen says. "At the moment we are just a few ladies who go and sit there at night and a group of ten to fifteen youths can be intimidating.

"I need visual presence from others to protect me also whilst observing and interacting.

"It's not a one-person fight, it's a fight for the whole community.

"It would be great if people could come and join me around 7-10pm, just to have a chat and get involved with what we're trying to do there."

Helen is also looking for equipment such as catering flasks to help her run her Saltworks Kindness Café, where she offers hot drinks to the young people using the play area.

As part of this, Helen will be running a socially-distanced pop-up Teddy Bear's Picnic today (Saturday 10 April) at 2pm, for children and families.

This will involve snacks, drinks and a teddy bear raffle which will help raise funds for further Kindness Café events.

Helen has already received a flood of teddy bear donations from local residents, meaning that there will be plenty of prizes for everyone.

For the Teddy Bear's Picnic she will also be using a gazebo borrowed from No.5 the Barbers, and would be very grateful to anyone who would like to help put it up!

A heightened police presence

Over the past seven days, Frodsham's local police officers have been spending time engaging with Saltworks users as part of their 'Street a Week' scheme.

"PCs Henry and Edwards and PCSO Flanagan have been there this week playing basketball and chatting with the children, and it was great to see them behaving and engaging," Helen says.

"It is good to see police presence in the area, but we do need to make sure we also report any antisocial behaviour we see to make sure that the area is a target for patrols."

What's the latest on the skate park lights?

Saltworks users, Ship Street residents and other local stakeholders all agree that the site would feel safer and more welcoming if the play area floodlights – which have been out of service for the past six years - were switched on.

Cheshire West and Chester electricians visited the skate park this week to assess the state of the lights, finding an underground wiring fault that would cost £1,000 to repair.

The issue has now been referred back for Council approval before work begins on fixing the lights.

[I]To read more about the Save our Skate Park petition, click here.

You can contact Helen about getting involved with Saltworks projects, through Wacky Watson's Waterside Kindness Board on Facebook.