YOUNGSTERS in a Suffolk town are celebrating the news that plans for a long awaited skateboard park have finally been given the go ahead.Work is expected to start soon on the £70,000 project, which will be built behind the Deben swimming pool in Woodbridge.

YOUNGSTERS in a Suffolk town are celebrating the news that plans for a long awaited skateboard park have finally been given the go ahead.

Work is expected to start soon on the £70,000 project, which will be built behind the Deben swimming pool in Woodbridge.

Members of Suffolk District Coastal Council approved the plans on Wednesday, bringing to an end more than three years of frustration for local teenagers.

The cost of the park will be met by contributions from Woodbridge Town Council, the district council, police, local youth groups and St Johns Church.

Neil Montgomery, Woodbridge mayor, said: “I'm absolutely delighted that this is coming to fruition.

“There were one or two people who were dubious about it because of noise but those objections have been dealt with because the area is going to be surrounded by a sound-reducing fence.

“It's a project that I have been behind since March 2001, when young people in the town who were constantly being told off for skating on public roads came to me and asked what they were to do.

“I thought there was a case for the park, so I arranged for them to sign a petition and, in a matter of days, I had several hundred signatures.

“Although it will be sited in Woodbridge, it will be a facility for the whole district to use.”

Mr Montgomery said he thought the park, which will be covered by CCTV and lighting, would be open by early summer.

He spoke of his hope that the facility would reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour in the historic town by giving youngsters something to do.

“I think it will be helpful because Woodbridge does suffer, like most small places, from a low level of anti-social behaviour, because young people feel disaffected from society as a whole.

“There are things provided for the very young children and older people, but that sector - say between the ages of 12 and 19 - don't get much done for them and they are the ones that, to some extent cause trouble.

“This is a demonstration that we are trying to connect with them.”