THE residents with properties adjoining Monkton Park, Chippenham, are right; it is a wonderful environment having attractive open aspects, being centrally located and providing a safe haven for old and young alike.

On our daily walks through the park, we have especially enjoyed seeing skaters and their friends making full use of recreational facilities of which Chippenham could be rightly proud.

By contrast we are appalled that, having been denied assess to the skate park, these same skaters and, perhaps more worryingly, their young friends and spectators must relocate to the Bridge Centre which, being situated on a busy roundabout, is one of the least suitable locations imaginable.

As council taxpayers and active members of the local community we would like to ask two questions:

What messages are communicated to young people when adults propose tucking their facilities away in obscure locations including underpasses and roundabouts?

Should a few residents of properties adjoining Monkton Park be allowed to determine how this community facility, intended for the whole town, is developed and used?

For our part, we feel that appropriate messages would be sent to both groups if, as a longer-term outcome of the current fiasco, a purpose built youth centre, incorporating a skate park, was developed close to the Olympiad.

Dave and Lori Purton

London Road

Chippenham