We mean business

But this time their plan is bigger and bolder than ever.

Not content with attempting to establish small ramps in outlying areas of town, the skaters have set about forming a charitable trust to raise funds for a large, indoor facility the first of its kind in Swindon.

The Swindon Community Sk8 Project is to be launched on Monday, August 18, with a professional skate and BMX team demonstrating their talents in Market Street to raise funds.

If it gets up and running, the facility would have full-time staff, state-of-the-art equipment, somewhere to eat, and a skate clothing and accessories shop. Users would be expected to pay an admission fee.

The project has set up a website, www.swindoncommunity-sk8project-.co.uk, recruited a funding advisor, and is currently putting together a business plan.

One of the project's four trustees, Haydon Wick resident Eric Smith, says he expects the park will cost £150,000 to set up and £80,000 a year to keep going.

The project needs £1,000 in the bank before it can be formally recognised as a charity.Then it can begin fundraising in earnest.

Mr Smith, 41, said the Swindon project is partly based on the Mount Hawke skate park in Cornwall.

"It has been based in Truro for about five years and is a charity," he said.

"It was done through the youth service and the charity status opened the doors to different funds which is what we're hoping to do."

Buying or renting a site for the park is still a long way off, but an old car parts warehouse in Ocotal Way has been mentioned as a potential site. Another suggested option is the Mechanics' Institute.

The project's trustees welcome the town's current initiatives for skaters.

But they also point out that a small area at Haydonleigh Primary School in Haydon Wick, if it wins planning approval next month, will not be large enough to cater for the local skaters, let alone the whole of Swindon.

That scheme would transform land near Haydonleigh Primary School into a skateboard park and five-a-side football pitch for use by the school for PE activities and by the community.

But residents have adversely reacted to the joint project between Haydon Wick Parish Council and the school, saying it might attract vandals.

Many skaters are also far from satisfied with the quality of the surface at the temporary Link Centre facility, set to open this week for the whole of August.

And the tiny facility at Lechlade is considered small and badly maintained.

Mr Smith, a father-of-two, said he and the other trustees decided it was time to take action after being forced to take their children to skate facilities in places like Bristol, Birmingham and London.

"We all support the smaller parks, but ours is a bigger plan," said Mr Smith. "We have grouped together and changed direction.

"We want to offer a covered and supervised all-year-round facility."

Mr Smith's son Alex, 16, is a keen skateboarder and his other son, Aaron, 19, was once an avid fan.

"The people of Swindon need to be made aware of the need for this," he said.

"These youngsters are a good bunch of people."

Initial reaction to the Swindon Project has been positive but cautious.

Coun Garry Perkins (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms), the council's lead member for learning, considers himself a strong supporter of a permanent skate park. He said he would be happy to meet the project's trustees and look at their proposals.

But he questioned whether there were enough skaters in the town to make such a facility viable.

Craig Smith, the owner of Tower 12 skate shop in Victoria Road, however, said there were more than enough. "If you built a large indoor park I guarantee people will pay to go in," he said.

"The council could attract people from 50 miles away to come and skate here. At the moment Swindon skaters are travelling that distance to go and skate in Bristol.

"To say it would not attract people is a nonsense."

Laurence Brown, manager of the private Revolution Skatepark in Broadstairs, Kent, said: "As long as the facility opens to rollerblades, BMXs and scooters as well as skateboards I see no reason why Swindon cannot sustain a successful central skate park."

For more information or to make a donation to the project e-mail info@swindoncommunitysk8project.co.uk.