Devizes mayor Coun Pete Smith showed his skill on two wheels when he took to a scooter on the first anniversary of the town’s indoor skate park, Ramp Nation.

Coun Smith donned a helmet and took the scooter up the ramps at the skate park, to the delight of those who had come along to celebrate the occasion.

Owner Lucy Wain said: “He was absolutely brilliant. He is such a larger-than-life personality and he didn’t disappoint us. He just put on the helmet and got going.”

Mrs Wain and her husband Keith had invited all the town councillors to the event on Sunday, offering tea, coffee and cupcakes to all.

She said: “I don’t know how many people we had throughout the day, but we got through 60 or 70 cupcakes.”

When Ramp Nation opened last October, it was the answer to the prayers of many parents of enthusiastic skateboarders, BMX bike riders and scooter riders.

The wooden ramps, specially designed and made for the Wains, have lasted well and continue to draw in the youngsters.

Mrs Wain said: “We had an unusually lovely summer when they preferred to go outdoors, so it got a bit quiet, but we have had some really good events.”

Among those were a number of skateboard and scooter competitions, a BMX jam, an under-nines scooter festival, an “inline” jam and in June the venue hosted the final of the Wiltshire Skate Series.

Then, on August 20, it had a visit by world scooter champion Dakota Schuetz from California on one of only five visits to skate parks in the UK.

Ramp Nation was a finalist in the Wiltshire Business of the Year competition in the categories of customer and staff care, service to the community and small business of the year.

And today, it is open from noon as a refuge for pupils who are off school due to the teachers’ strike.