Bridport’S skatepark is to get a £5,330 facelift – but how that money is spent will be up to the youngsters who use the park.

Town council surveyor Daryl Chambers said in the past the council paid for materials and the user groups did the work.

In the next few days posters will go up at the skatepark asking youngsters to get involved in a new steering group to find out what they want there.

Mr Chambers said: “I am just trying to get it up to scratch for the minute but we intend to set up a steering group with posters going up in the skatepark within the next couple of days to help make sure when we do the work we are doing what they want.

“It used to be skateboarders and BMX but it is now mainly little scooters. I sat down there to watch and they came up to talk to me and said there was not a lot for them.

“So it is very important this steering group gets it right.

“They are very happy with a lot of the equipment there that I am going to repair but there are some aspects that have got to go because they are past their sell-by date and can’t be repaired but when we put in new things inevitably they get more challenging and they want longer and higher.

“We want to make sure all the user groups are getting involved.”

Part of the reason for this was to make sure the area was well used and relevant but also to cut out any problems in the area.

Mr Chambers told members of the finance and general purposes committee: “It is a tried and tested formula. When we did the graffiti project down there we did it together with the young people. We bought the paint and they did what they wanted and it worked fantastically and stopped all the vandalism at the skatepark virtually overnight because they thought of it as theirs.

“The West Bay area was the same.”

Coun Julian May asked about the possibility of concrete areas similar to the park in Dorchester which had the benefit of being a long term solution.

But Mr Chambers said a lot don’t like concrete and while it might suit one group it might not suit others.

He added: “I want to get the balance. It depends what the user groups want to do. Dorchester looks fantastic and is always packed with kids but I bet they have more accidents than we do.”

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