A NEW skate park will be built in Melksham to help stop teenagers terrorising shoppers and residents.

A petition with 1,500 signatures was handed to town councillors last month urging them to sanction a permanent skate park in Bath Road car park.

Building work could begin as early as September after town councillors agreed that it should go ahead.

Skateboarders have been causing havoc in the town centre for months.

Staff at Giffords Primary Care Centre, in Spa Road, had to bring in security guards to protect patients.

Gangs of teenagers were using the doctors' surgery car park for dangerous skateboard stunts and drink binges.

Some youths on skateboards were being dragged around the car park by motorbikes and cars.

Residents in Snowberry Lane have reported problems with gangs of teenagers. There have also been complaints about skaters outside the library in Lowbourne.

A skateboard ramp in King George V playing fields a well-known haunt for drug-users has been ineffective in luring skateboarders away from the town centre.

Mayor Vic Oakman said the park will provide a permanent base for teenagers to practise their sport safely.

He said: "We are looking to buy more equipment for the park to make it somewhere teenagers want to go. We need this skateboard park as the teenagers have been causing problems.

"I have had scores of people phoning me about the problem. The kids have been saying there's nowhere for them to go and they're right.

"They are not breaking the law but they are putting themselves in danger as well as other people."

The move will mean the town's annual funfair will be forced out of its base.

Jennings' funfair will run from the Bath Road car park this autumn but will have to find another home for next year's event.

Mr Oakman said: "We are looking at new sites for the funfair and have a few locations in mind."