Tamworth Bike Skate Scoot take advantage of new skate park

Chantelle and Kris Faulkner opened Tamworth Bike, Skate, Scoot in May and will have their grand opening this weekend. The new skate park was a big factor in their decision to open the Darling St store.

"It's been great, we're so close [to the new skate park], so we just have kids riding over," Mr Faulkner said.

"We want to cater to kids who are just getting in to it. All the bikes we have in here we try to keep affordable for families.

"We've had dads buying bikes as well, and mums buying scooters so they can join in."

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Mr Faulkner, a former BMX-pro, is also a bike mechanic.

"He does scooters as well, anything with wheels really - he even fixed the pram," Ms Faulkner said, laughing.

BC Bike Shop owner Ben Clark said about a month before the new skate park opened up, he noticed he was selling more BMX bikes that usual.

"Sales definitely increased, and we're continuing to sell them as well, it's been great," Mr Clark said.

"We're also selling a fair few scooters. People are coming and saying they plan to use them at the new skate park."

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Council is looking for a business to operate a cafe at the skate park. Tamworth Business Chamber president Jye Segboer expects the park to become a "hotspot" for families, like the playground on Kable Avenue.

"It's bringing out-of-town visitors here for the day - the kids go to the skate park and the parents go shopping or to a cafe," he said.

"We've had people from Armidale and Gunnedah come in to the restaurant, saying they're here for the skate park, after the kids saw it on social media."

"It's good to see something that's good for the town socially, and generating more business and employment at the same time."

Tamworth mayor Col Murray said council was quietly hoping the new skate park would help out businesses in some small way.

"You can never really be sure if you're going to glean that kind of outcome, but we were confident that if we build the right project, there would be flow on benefits," he said.

"We're expecting to host significant skate boarding events in the future, right up to the national stage.

"This was half funded by the state government, so credit to [Tamworth MP] Kevin Anderson for bringing this about. It's a positive example of both tiers of government working together to get a good outcome."