in my experience, you will have to do all the hard work for the council, and then let them take the praise when its finished.
you said it. penzance has one of the best bowls in the UK because of me and my freind, and we did'nt even get invited to the opening ceremony.
that asides, is the area any where near a council estate? if so it is very likely there will be a huge community fund and that is a good source.
if you do get the wheels moving DO YOUR RESEARCH as to what is available and what can be achieved. there are some really dubiuos manufactureres out there supplying sub-standard ramps etc at ridiculous prices. when i was working on penzance, in my own village and unbeknown to me, a half pipe was erected that is so bad and so unsafe its unskateable (4ft wide, raised seams, built not only on a slope but on the side of a slope with no leveling). it cost twice what i could get a high quality skater designed and built half pipe for.
my advice though is to look at concrete, bowls and importantly flow. do not be swayed by the kids saying they want street as generally they know no different. you need to educate them as to what can be achieved in a skatepark. again in penzance all we got at first was 1/4 pipe this and driveway that. we spent hours showing the kids US parks and now, a few years on, the park has nurtured some amazing skaters.
of course you could always go for some pump tracks instead, shaped mud is much cheaper and less to object to!
