The mothballed Devizes skateboard park equipment has been refurbished and will soon be opening in the village of Rowde.

Rowde Youth Council responded to an offer from Devizes Town Council to take the equipment for free.

The equipment was removed from Hillworth Park in 2002 after Devizes Town Council lost a county court case over noise nuisance and failed to find a suitable alternative location and so put it in storage.

For the past 18 months the youth council in Rowde has been renovating the equipment.

Final repairs are being carried out and the skate park should be ready to use on the large playing field off Sands Close within two weeks.

The metal covering the ramps was in good order but the wood underneath had rotted and was replaced.

Youngsters worked with parents and local farmers on the repairs and on creating a concrete base.

The project will cost in the region of £7,500. The youth council was awarded £3,168 from Devizes Area Board, £3,850 from Wiltshire Young People’s Opportunity Fund and £400 from Rowde Parish Council.

Shannon Kerfoot, 17, a member of Rowde Youth Council and a BMX rider, said: “There’s a lot of people in Rowde who ride and skateboard and, if you wanted to go to a proper skate park, you would have to go to places like Trowbridge.

“We use the playing field in Rowde to ride on and we also get people from Devizes coming to use it but we wanted our own skate park.

“When we saw the equipment that Devizes Town Council wanted to give away we thought it was definitely useable again.”

The playing field where the skate park is is owned by Rowde Parish Council.

Parish council vice-chairman Jackie Bawden said: “Everybody’s delighted the equipment is to be used again. The youngsters are raring to use it.”

Picture caption: Josh List, Ali Broughton, Luke Jefford, Cullen Wylie, Rhys Collier, Aaron Parsons, Tommy Arkle, Harleigh Whitford; middle row helper Regan Hodges, youth council chairman Kayleigh Lintern; front row Brad Burgess, designer builders Chris and Neil Plum, Jordan Raine.