Launceston resident Ryan Joyce said expanding and improving what was already available would offer increased health benefits to young people across the region.

 “Every other town has pretty much had a new skate park built in the past five to 10 years and Hobart has had about seven built in the greater Hobart area recently,” he said.

“There is almost nowhere to go anymore. Mayfield’s skate park was destroyed about five or six years ago, Waverley just got knocked down and we don’t know why or whether it will be replaced.”

While it was the skaters’ understanding that a replacement park in Ravenswood was on the council’s agenda for the upcoming year, they said they felt left out of the process and had no input or involvement in the plans.

Skate teacher Brendon Hill said there was a generational difference in what skaters were after and a lack of investment was what pushed people into the central business district to find ways to challenge their skills.

“It’s changing from ramps to techy ledges and even now (on the mainland and in America) they have street plazas that emulate the streets so we don’t have to go annoy businesses,” he said.

“(Improvements) will pull younger kids to the skate parks rather than doing it at schools or near business which can be seen as a pest

Mr Hill said regenerating skate assets would not only cater to the technical changes in the sport but could bring more people to Launceston like the major upgrade at Rosny had done in Tasmania’s South.

“I think it was about $1.4 million spent and it is incredible, they have made a facility that is world standard and if they wanted to hold a world championship in Tasmania they could and the qualifiers are the same,” he said,

“Tasmanians now have the opportunity to go to these bigger competitions because we have the championship facility … improvements would help to cater for the demographic in Launceston because they wouldn’t have to travel down to Rosny or fly to Melbourne to skate those highly regarded courses.”

While more skate parks, especially in the Trevallyn, Legana, West Launceston, Summerhill and Prospect areas, would be ideal the skaters would also like two major improvements to the existing site at Royal Park.

“The concrete is the big one, it’s a glass and asphalt mix so when you fall it hurts a lot,” Mr Joyce said.

“When you go to the new skate parks it is a lot smoother and there are no fill rocks or glass to space it out, it’s all just pure concrete and is a lot nicer to fall on.”

The other update would be lighting.

“Down in Rosny kids are making use of the skate park after school, in the right times and doing it in the right environments because it’s under lights,” Mr Hill said.

City of Launceston general manager Robert Dobrzynski said a $300,000 upgrade was included in this year’s capital works program and represented a significant upgrade to the skate park's ageing infrastructure.

“Over the past decade, skate parks at Waverley and Mayfield have closed or been decommissioned after the expiry of the council's leases on land and other matters beyond the council's control,” he said.

“However, we understand that skateboarding is a popular activity in Launceston. The council owns and maintains a popular skate park facility at Royal Park, and is about to transform the Ravenswood skate park into a contemporary and vibrant community facility.”

Mr Dobrzynski said any members of the skateboarding community who had not yet been consulted and would like to know more about the Ravenswood upgrade were welcome to contact the council.

“In recent months we have held consultation sessions with skaters at Royal Park in partnership with consultants Ramp Wizard and Concrete Dreams to understand the type of facility they would like to see at Ravenswood,” he said.

The council was aware from this consultation that some skaters would like to see a facility like the one recently constructed at Rosny Park.

“We'd love to see a facility like that in the North as well, but we have a limited pool of funds to work from each year and there needs to be clear, evidence-based demand for us to be able to commit the significant funding that would be required for such a facility, or to lobby other tiers of government for support,” Mr Dobrzynski said.

The West Tamar Council has been contacted for comment.