PUPILS at a west Dorset school have been trying out equipment as part of plans to provide accessible facilities at a proposed skatepark redevelopment.

Bridport Young Persons Action Trust (BYPAT) previously teamed up with Bridport Town Council to redevelop the West Bay Play Area. The partnership is now working together to make other recreational facilities in the town accessible to all, including the skate park.

Cllr Maggie Ray remains as chairman of the steering group, whilst BYPAT’s Arthur Woodgate has been elected chairman of the group's skate park sub-committee.

Mr Woodgate said: "In attempting to ensure equality, the skate park is likely to be our biggest challenge.

“Our aim of combining both the outdoor park with a new indoor venue for the very popular Trick Factory makes the challenge even greater – and all the more exciting.”

With support for this project from young people and parents, meetings will soon be called to look at the practicalities of the proposed project, inevitably including how to fund it.

In the meantime, Mountjoy School has agreed to be one of the consultation groups, as they were with the West Bay Play Area. A workshop involving West Dorset District Council’s mobile skate park was held at the school, with more than 30 pupils of all ages taking part.

Sarah Davies, the district council’s sports development officer, said: "This was the first visit with our skate park to Mountjoy School and it was fantastic to see all the young people using the ramps in so many different ways.

"Some of them were a bit nervous to start with but once they saw that the ramps were quite low and that they had space to skate or scoot on the flat areas around the ramps it seemed to encourage everyone to have a go."

The children were asked to come up with a quote to illustrate how they felt about the experience and, after some debate, decided on 'it was awesome and fun, we loved the skate park and we would all like to do it again.'

Members of the skate park committee were also involved, including parent representative Chris Scadding and his son Morgan, one of the young people’s representatives from the Sir John Colfox Academy. The academy fully supports the initiative.

A survey to assess the needs of younger children is being carried out at Bridport Primary School.

For more information, please email a.c.woodgate@btinternet or dchambers@bridport-tc.gov.uk