A safe playground built after a three-year campaign by tenacious teenagers has never been used.

The £46,000 kick-around area at Bracken Bank, Keighley has lain idle since it was built two years ago - because of regular flooding.

Community leaders say the playground is a muddy, smelly quagmire even in the height of summer.

This week council chiefs promised action following pressure by ward councillor Steve Thomas and workers at the Sue Belcher Centre.

A group of youngsters at Bracken Bank called the Green Group had spent three years fighting for a safe area so they did not have to play football on the road or hang around dark street corners.

The group suggested land behind the Sue Belcher Centre off Bracken Bank Avenue, which could be surrounded by a fence and security lighting.

They approached Keighley councillors, spoke with MP Ann Cryer, attended Neighbourhood Forum meetings, sat on community association gatherings, went to conferences and even carried out their own survey in a bid to make it happen.

Their efforts were rewarded when Keighley's SRB partnership board agreed to pay for the work and Bradford Council took on permanent responsibility for the play area's upkeep.

Councillor Thomas said: "The playground has a basic design problem - everyone in this area knows this is a boggy piece of land. Ever since day one we've had problems. It's never been properly levelled so water always stands on the surface when it rains.

"A spring also drains across it. Even in dry weather we've got this problem of water collecting and horrible mud and gunk building up."

Development worker Alison Robinson, who is based at the centre, says the children are particularly affected during holiday activity schemes.

"There's no play area for the youngsters here," she said. "It would have been better staying as a field. We used to be able to play games like rounders."

Bradford Council this week said it was fully aware of the flooding problems at the playground.

A recreation spokesman promised to complete improvement work by the autumn.

He added: "Due to the high water table at the site and the excessive amount of water, the porous tarmac is working in reverse and allowing water to seek upwards on to the surface.

"We are planning to overlay the site with a second layer of road tar, featuring a camber to encourage water to run off.

"We shall also be installing a second drain across the surface to collect further water."