A TEENAGER'S bid to see a mini skateboard park built in Addingham has received the backing of the village's parish council.

Jason Brown, 13, of Hodgson Fold, told a meeting of the council that a small-scale skating area was desperately needed in the village.

He said either land at Silsden Road recreation field or at the bottom of the Memorial Hall park would provide an ideal spot for a small-scale skating area.

"We thought we could flatten that out and concrete it over," he said. "Not like the Ilkley skate park - just more basic and stuff."

Jason's parents, Polly and Andy, accompanied him to the meeting and said they, and other mums and dads, would give financial support to the scheme.

Mrs Brown said: "We do take them elsewhere but the boys want something more local. What they are planning in Ilkley is something pretty spectacular - it's not what the boys are wanting at all.

"It's just having something in the village for the kids. Something very, very low-key."

Mr Brown offered to produce a plan for the park and present it to the council at a later meeting.

Councillors nodded in approval, apart from Coun Danny Palmer, who said he was worried about the safety of a park.

But former parish council chairman, Alan Jerome, dismissed his concerns. "You can say the same about cricket. With cricket, somebody gets hit with a ball so we don't have cricket anymore.

"The easiest thing is to be negative. I think it would be totally wrong for Addingham Parish Council to put all the stumbling blocks in the way. The bottom of the Memorial Hall park is ideal."

He said if parents were prepared to let their children go to a park the council should be prepared to back the scheme by providing building materials.

Jason agreed: "We are skilled - if we had a skate park we'd get better. Obviously there is going to be accidents at all skate parks. But if we don't get a skate park we are just going to go on annoying people."

His father added: "They will skate on the street and we will encourage them not to but they are kids. The alternative (to the park) is to do nothing which is less safe. It's really about what we want to invest in the youth of the community."

Council chairman Gordon Campbell said the council would happily support the scheme but would not be able to fork out for a state-of-the-art park.

"We have a very, very, limited budget," he warned.

He said he was now satisfied that recent vandalism at the former First School site, on Chapel Street, had not been caused by the young skateboarders who were calling for a park.

"There's been some adverse publicity about the first school. I'm fairly happy that what damage is being caused up there is not by these lads. It's an older gang."

John Beverland, chairman of Addingham Civic Society, said after the meeting that the group would pledge a 'substantial' sum of money to the scheme when it got off the ground.

"We have been pressing for this for a long time," he said. "We can't instigate one because the parish council controls the land. They are very slow at getting on with it. The amount would depend on how soon they get on with it and it would really depend on how much the council would be putting up."

Mr Campbell told the Gazette a village football club which folded in January - the Addingham All-Stars - had already offered to give more than £400 towards the skate park scheme.