Photos and video: a look inside the new Haywards Heath skate park that nurtures growth and happiness

Tom Johnston, owner of Skatefarm CIC, said he wants the facility in Bridge Road to be a place where people can learn and grow in ways that benefit them as individuals.

Tom, who has taught hundreds of children and adults how to skate, said Skatefarm got its name ‘because everybody grows differently, like a plant or a crop in a field’.

During a tour of the facility, he told the Middy: “My passion is to nurture everybody’s growth and how they grow. Everybody will grow differently but the end result will always be the same. Everybody wants to go home happy and that’s my end result for this facility. That’s my vision.”

Tom said the entrance area of the facility has been prepared so people who are anxious to be in a new place can feel grounded. There are plants dotted around with imitation grass on the floor, as well as a sofa, to create a calm atmosphere before people go into actual arena.

Tom said there are caps hung on the wall, which have been designed by young people who come to Skatefarm workshops. They draw their own designs on them and then the caps go up for sale. If they sell the designer gets a free skakeboard session in the park.

There is a pinball machine in the lobby too to get people’s energy up before they go in. Tom said: “The more energy you leave here the better the facility, I believe.”

Tom described the main skatepark as ‘a field of wood’, saying the space has been designed for everybody, including beginners. He said: “Like myself. I’m nearly 50 and I’m still learning the skateboard. So to have little things that you can learn on makes you feel a lot better than big ramps where you might never get your trick in.”

There are different stages with different height ramps for the varying skill levels. Tom said: “Once you go on one stage you can go on the next stage right away, and the next stage, and it’s just like that. Nurture the confidence while they’re here and they feel a lot better about how they grow. It’s taken me two and a half months to build this from scratch. I’ve learnt how to build ramps.”

He said everyone is allowed to write on the walls too, including parents, so people can literally leave their mark on the facility: “Everybody feels like they’ve got a part in the skatepark and that’s what makes me happy.”

As well as the normal ramps, the park has miniature ones for finger skateboards. There will be a cafe hatch soon where people can get food and drink and there will be a sensory room for neurodiverse children and adults. Tom said: “People regulate in different ways. Maybe they need a time out so they can go in there (the sensory room) and just chill. If it’s too loud they’ve got headphones and it will be just nice soft lighting, a little area to spend five or ten minutes and then come back out to the busy, busy hustle.”

There will be a birthday party room for hire too, which has TVs and another pinball machine.

There is also a ‘mini-ramp garden’, which has a shallow ramp for easy learning. Tom said the space ‘grew organically’ as he started teaching lessons in the room. He said: “When everything grows organically it’s much better. It’s a bit more substance. If one or two people want to come and use it that means more to me than having 30 or 40 people in here busy every day. There’s a little kid who came here yesterday for the first time and he said he learnt more here in two hours than he did in the past two months trying to learn tricks everywhere else.”

There is a different, larger ramp nearby with a ‘stretched out bottom’ between each side, which gives users more time to prepare a trick. Visit theskatefarmcic.co.uk to find out more.