Over the next six month, the County Durham Ice Foundation aims to:

• Continue to lobby for and support the development of a permanent ice sports facility in the County Durham area
• Continue to promote and support existing ice hockey and ice skating activity in the county, including Durham’s only existing ice hockey team – Durham Dragons
• Continue to grow our membership to demonstrate public support for a new permanent facility
• Convert the County Durham Ice Foundation from a voluntary community group to a registered charity in order to access potential new funding routes
• Establish an Ice Sports Development Fund to help financially assist existing young ice skaters and ice hockey players in County Durham to continue their development in their chosen sport
• Establish Durham Ice Skating Club to allow amateur skaters to represent Durham at competition level and provide a sporting and social platform for Durham’s ice skating community to develop and grow
• Increase our fundraising activities and revenue generation

As a result, and with some recent changes in personnel, we’re looking to expand our steering-group committee.

Interested candidates must be willing and able to commit a number of hours of their time a month to carry out CDIF activity and be able to attend regular evening meetings (on an at-least monthly basis).

We’re looking to get a mix of people of all ages and backgrounds, and reflecting the range of ice sports that the Foundation is committed to supporting. Above all, we’re looking for committed, enthusiastic individuals to help drive the Foundation forward.

We’re also looking for people with knowledge in particular areas of expertise to maximise the effectiveness of the Foundation’s activity. This includes:

• Maintaining financial accounts
• Grant Applications & Funding
• Managing online social media (Facebook / Twitter / website etc)
• Database management
• Building and managing relationships

If you think you have the time and the skills to enhance our steering-committee, please send a brief outline of yourself to richendean@googlemail.com by Sunday 25th April 2010.

Last weekend, the rink held a Gala night starring youngsters from the rink’s own learn to skate programme, and featuring a guest appearance from Dancing on Ice TV stars Andrei Lipanov and Susie Lipanova. Mayor of Durham, Councillor Dennis Southwell was also in attendance as guest of honour.

Mayor of Durham, Councillor Dennis Southwell with Susie Lipanova, Christine Eskidsen, Jan Eskildsen, Andrei Lipanov and young skaters from the Winter Rink

During its residency in the shadow of the former Riverside Rink building, the temporary rink has attracted in excess of 30,000 visitors, had over 400 young people participate in its Learn to Skate and Learn to Play Ice Hockey programmes, introduced Curling to the city with the help of the English Curling Association and has collected over 6,000 signatures from members of the public calling for a permanent ice rink in Durham.

Dancing on Ice’s Susie Lipanova said: “It’s fantastic to see so many youngsters who have taken to ice skating while the ice rink has been here, and I hope that Durham can get a permanent ice rink back soon so that they have somewhere to continue to develop and have fun.”

Rich Endean from the County Durham Ice Foundation – the group lobbying for a permanent facility said: “The number of visitors proves how popular a full-size permanent rink could be, and it’s nice to see that it’s a whole new generation of people coming to the rink week-on-week who don’t even remember the old ice rink in Durham. We’ve got a fantastic history of ice skating and ice hockey here in Durham but the future holds massive potential too which has been shown this year.”

Discussions regarding a permanent rink between Mr. Eskildsen and Durham County Council are on-going and it is understood that two possible sites are currently being considered.

Skaters participating in the North East Ice Hockey ‘shirt skate’ earlier in the year at Durham Winter Ice Rink

Mr Eskildsen said: “These things take time and careful planning, and we need to make sure we get it right. Which is why we decided to open the temporary rink in the interim – to build up the interest again and get Durham back on ice.”

The ice rink at Freeman’s Place remains open until this Sunday, 18th April. On Saturday, local band The Last Conversation will be performing an acoustic set rink-side for skaters at a ‘Rock the Rink’ night, and on Sunday, skaters are encouraged to come to the rink in fancy dress to celebrate the final day.

“I couldn’t agree more with the idea of building new rinks in the area. I have been asking and talking about getting more ice rinks in the North East for years. It is such a shame as there is an awful lot of talent in the north east and always has been but, unfortunatley all skaters now have to travel to other places for good facilities and coaching. What we need is a great training rink with great coaches – it would be a great asset to the region and its stars of the future!”

Joanne Conway, former British Olympic figure skater.

The Journal’s nebusiness.co.uk site today announced plans that will see the former Riverside Rink in the city redeveloped as part of a 130,000sq ft office scheme in line with Durham City Vision’s masterplan for the site.

Initial plans have revealed the development is likely to comprise of three interlinked office blocks with additional landscaping.

The site was acquired in 2009 by regional development agency One North East in partnership with Durham City Vision. A report by the European Institute for Urban Affairs revealed that £5m was spent on acquisition costs, plus a further £1.5m for development costs – demolition, obtaining planning consent etc.

An earlier proposal to for a mixed-use residential-led development was turned-down following a public enquiry.

The EIUA report suggests that if the project proceeds as planned, 1,600 jobs could be retained – suggesting a move from elsewhere in the city – 2,400 more created, and £58.5m levered from prospective investors.

County Durham Ice Foundation have understood for a number of years that a ‘resurrection’ of a new ice facility on the former site would always almost certainly be out of the question due to planning regulations relating to the size and scale of development on the site, the ambitions for the site outlined in Durham City Vision’s masterplan and the prohibitive cost of the land. In an ideal world, it would have been great to see a rink built again on the site – forming a ‘Sports Quarter’ together with Freeman’s Quay Leisure Centre – but we know that unfortunately, that would not happen. The need to secure a suitable location for a new ice sports development, which is likely to be out-of-town remains the main priority.

The first phase of the development on the old ice rink site is expected to be completed in 2013.

ITV’s Dancing on Ice stars Susie and Andrei Lipanov are set to make an appearance at Durham Winter Ice Rink’s Gala Night on Saturday 10th April. The pair will also be at the rink on Wednesday 14th April to provide a coaching session for adult skaters.

The two professional skaters from South Shields, who have trained celebrities and appeared in the show’s live tour for four years called for more ice rinks to be built in the region earlier this week in the Evening Chronicle.

Before Dancing on Ice, Susie represented Great Britain at international level and met husband Andrei while perfoming in Hot Ice at Blackpool Pleasure Beach over 12 years ago.

Russian-born Andrei appeared in this year’s Dancing on Ice competition with 80’s pop-star Sinitta and has previously appeared with actresses Claire Buckfield and Gemma Bissix (pictured).

Susie has previously appeared with athlete Steve Backley and more-famously former EastEnders actor Todd Carty (pictured). In this year’s show, Susie was paired with actor Jeremy Sheffield, who was eliminated in Round Three.

Susie told the Evening Chronicle earler in the week: “There used to be ice rinks in Billingham, Durham and Sunderland, but they’ve shut down and now there’s only the Whitley Bay rink. It’s good, but it’s a shame it’s the only one left. The programme has made skating so popular. More and more people want to learn to skate and there’s nowhere to go in the area.”

Tickets are available for the Gala Night and Disco at the rink for £10, which will feature skating demonstrations from local skaters with the Dancing on Ice stars and will be followed by an on-ice disco. The night is set to celebrate the success of the rink, which closes on April 18th, and showcase the talent of our local skaters who have skated and trained at the temporary facility over the winter months.

The coaching session on Wednesday 14th with Andrei and Susie will take place from 9am – 10am and is open to skaters of all abilities over 16. The cost of the session is £15 and includes skate hire and access to the 10am – 11:45am public session.

For further details, please call the rink direct on 07940 188 586 or visit www.durhamicerink.co.uk

On a lovely sunny Sunday morning, 19 fundraisers (skaters & non-skaters) took up the challenge and skated three minutes for every British soldier killed in Afghanistan so far…..non stop.  That’s nearly 900 minutes in total & it was a big achievement for a lot of the participants.

The event was organised by Lindsey Fox from Billingham, with full support from Durham Winter Ice Rink. Participants in the fundraiser were Lindsey’s colleagues from a major telecoms company and skaters who have regularly visited the ice rink in Durham.

The skaters are confident that they will raise between £700 and £1,000 from the sponsored skate.

Already bringing the 1820s and 1910s to life, the museum is set to bring 1980s Durham back to life by reconstructing and restoring the city’s former Riverside ice rink at the museum.

The project is part of a breakthrough joint-agreement with regional development agency One North East who recently acquired the former ice rink building for re-development and initially planned to demolish the building until chiefs at Beamish approached the new owners.

A spokesman for Beamish said “We used to be at the rink all the time back in the 80s and often found ourself waxing lyrical about the good old days, so we thought we might aswell bring it back for real and show the comfy-seat arena generation what they’re missing.”

The rink, which will be carefully restored to it’s former glory using photos from old Ice Hockey News Reviews and Tyne Tees’ Castle Eden Cup footage to feature authentic original characteristics including rubber-matted corridors, wobbly floorboards, a game clock that could be slowed down or speeded up depending on whether Durham was winning or not, and general grime.

Photo: Visitors will be taught about things which have now become rare in top-flight ice-hockey, such as ‘an atmosphere’.

Skate-hire will be faithfully rebuilt complete with original red-laced ‘death-wellies’, and visitors will be able to skate in re-created Friday-night disco sessions on soaking wet ice to classic hits of the time such as Tiffany’s “I Think We’re Alone Now” and “The Only Way is Up” by Yazz. Chips will be served in the café at nuclear temperatures accompanied with gravy where the granules haven’t quite dissolved properly.

Visitors will also be able to tour the ice rink’s changing rooms led by authentic rink characters such as ‘Shouty Sue’, who will explain that “the visitors’ showers never ran hot water, as we liked to intimidate them like that.” Demonstrations of ice hockey training exercises, such as ‘placing a chair from the bar in the middle of the ice, skating up, jumping on it as fast as you can and seeing how far you can slide’ will also take place.

Photo: Supporters often had to wait for hours outside before stampeding in to find a seat.

“We’ll be explaining how 4,000 people used to cram into the building on a Sunday night in terrible conditions” said Beamish’s spokesperson, “as no-one was really bothered about health and safety back then and the fire chief probably had a season ticket anyway.”

Educational visits are also planned with a pilot scheme earmarked to bring visitors to the museum from nearby Whitley Bay to teach them what a real trophy cabinet looked like.

Work is expected to begin on the ice rink’s relocation and restoration early next year.

We’ve been busy making a video to showcase the popularity of the temporary Winter Ice Rink in Durham and the demand for a permanent facility.

With over 25,000 visitors so-far, thousands of people signing the petition for a new rink and packed sessions, the rink has proved a hit with the people of Durham.

Unlike many outdoor ice rinks, Durham have been operating a number of unique programmes, including Learn to Skate – with qualified NISA coaches, Learn to Play Hockey, and dedicated Curling days.

The rink is open until April 18th 2010 (weather permitting) for school-holiday skating. Visit durhamicerink.co.uk for further details of what’s happening down at the rink.

Don’t forget to forward the YouTube link to friends and help show the world that Durham needs a Permanent Ice Rink.

The support for a new ice rink in Durham has been demonstrated  in feet – 20,000 pairs of them, as visitor numbers to the city’s temporary Winter Ice Rink broke through the 20k mark during half-term last week.

The school holiday saw a bumper number of skaters take to the ice – some for the first time and the rink is hopeful to attract more skaters, old and new, in the coming weeks.

To find out about opening times, events, skating lessons and other activities happening at the rink, visit durhamicerink.co.uk

Get your skates on!

As part of the club’s commitment to raise awareness of the aim to secure a permanent home in Durham in the near future, the Durham Dragons will be taking part in a sponsored skate at Durham Winter Ice Rink on Friday 5th February 2010

The self-funding recreational team are aiming to complete 2010 laps in of the 20m x 30m outdoor ice pad in a gruelling overnight relay between 10pm on Friday evening and 8am Saturday morning.

Sponsorship of the team is welcome – email your pledges to fiona30@fsmail.net or call in personally to Breakout Hockey on Gilesgate Bank in Durham. All money raised will go towards helping the Dragons promote the name of Durham around the country’s ice rinks.