Tauranga City Council is taking onboard a passionate skateboarder's pleas for skater safety after initial concerns the 17th Avenue skate park upgrade didn't come up to scratch.

The council recently finished upgrading the skate park next to 17th Avenue Historic Village, in efforts to improve drainage and health and safety.

Skaters on the recently upgraded 17th Avenue skate park. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

The skate park upgrade cost about $50,000 as it hasn't had any serious attention since the turn of the century, says Tauranga City Council communications advisor Marcel Currin.

But Garth Urquhart believes council initially sidestepped public consultation from both residents and park users on what would benefit the community.

Instead skaters were to be left with a skate park that wasn't functional and a 'safety hazard”.

A skater for 18 years, Garth says the brand new surface does not meet skating conditions as council contractors haven't managed to give the surface a smooth enough finish – meaning skaters will slide when they fall.

Talks are now progressing between himself and council since initial concerns were raised.

'The current surface has been laid way too textured so when people fall it just wants to grab your skin and rip it open. This is where I learnt how to skate. I can't even explain how frustrating and hurting it is.

'They have taken perfectly functional obstacles, they are useless now. The whole surface is a cheese grater.”

In May Garth submitted to council's 2014/2015 draft annual plan on the need for the city's first skate plaza in the hope it would make Tauranga a skateboard destination.

'In the proposal and several other times I have offered my help and knowledge to the council absolutely free. We [skaters] don't want any money we just want to point you [council] in the right direction to get everything done correctly.”

Marcel says council has spoken with skaters as much as possible during the process, but as a group they are quite difficult to get hold of.

Council are still to do some more tidy-up work around the site and are looking at further efforts to improve the surface a bit more, he says.

'The skater [Garth] has come to us and said ‘hey it's not quite right' and we are going to look at it.

'Something to remember is that this is a park that caters for skaters, BMXers and scooters and they all have slightly different needs for the surface quality.”