GAZETTE & HERALD: Youngsters in Calne could finally be provided with skateboarding facilities by the end of the summer.

Calne Town Council is hoping to hire a mobile skate park twice a week.

It is also planning to enhance the current BMX bowl to accommodate skateboarders.

The council has been searching for a static skate park site for five years but has come up against opposition from residents, which has prevented it from finding a permanent site.

Last week councillors agreed to improve the existing BMX bowl in Castle Park, near Station Road, by adding a grind rail, half-pipe and jump boxes for skateboarders.

They decided to form a user group of skaters, parents and councillors to design the park with district council officers and to submit a plan to North Wiltshire District Council.

Town mayor Carol O'Gorman said the first step would be to carry out noise tests on the site and to consult neighbours.

"We must do those two things before anything else. We know how contentious skate parks are," she said.

"We will be working with the young people and looking for funding and will bring the result to the next amenities committee in September."

Five years ago the council identified the recreation ground at Anchor Road as a site for a skate park.

Youngsters worked with a skate park manufacturer to come up with a design and this was circulated in the Calne Connection community newsletter.

But in September 2002 a public meeting for Anchor Road residents revealed growing opposition from residents who feared the skate park would become a haven of drugs and anti-social behaviour.

Following the closure of the skate park in Chippenham due to complaints from neighbours, Calne Town Council decided to investigate alternative sites in the town.

Town clerk Ann Kingdon looked at the possibility of an indoor skate park but could not find premises of the right size.

A static and indoor skate park in the town have been shelved for the time being but the council believe developing the BMX bowl may be a step in the right direction.

Anchor Road resident Beryl Hinds-Howell, who opposed the skate park on the recreation ground, said Castle Park was a much more suitable location.

She said: "I don't know what the people that live there will think about it but I think it is considerably better.

"It makes much more sense because there is a lot of traffic on Anchor Road and it goes very fast. I would prefer to see it there for all sorts of reasons."

Vi Roberts, of Newcroft Road, was impressed with the mobile skate park that visited Calne during the Easter holiday.

"I am not against any of it. As long as it is something to keep the children occupied it is good because there are not enough facilities in the town.

"But no matter where you build a skate park you will always have people who complain," she said.

The council hopes to introduce the mobile skate park twice a week from early September.

The mobile could be placed at different locations to ease the impact on residents.

It is planned that it will travel around North Wiltshire including Calne, Wootton Bassett, Ashton Keynes, Purton and Devizes.