Public meeting to be held to discuss Chichester ice rink plan

More than 19,000 people took to the ice when the temporary rink was set up in Priory Park in 2018 and the district council looks set to allow it to return.

It has been included on the list of project proposals for 2024/25 in the council’s corporate plan.

But not everyone is pleased with the idea, with concerns raised about noise and damage.

During a cabinet meeting earlier in the year, councillors were told that allowing the rink to set up in the park had been ‘seriously problematic’ for a number of reasons and ‘left deep wounds in the memory of the community around the park’.

Now Town Crier and former mayor Richard Plowman has invited people to join a public meeting where he hopes ‘all facts and points of view will be aired both for and against in a true democratic way’.

Mr Plowman added: “The opposition is not against an ice rink as such on hard standing in a better central location, it is against the loss of a significant part of the park to all the very many users of the park for several months due to the damage to the park.”

The meeting, organised by the Priory Park Society, will be held on Monday April 29 at The Friends Meeting House, Priory Road, starting at 6.30pm.

It will be chaired by retired Judge His Hon Michael Baker.