WE are a group of youngsters from the ages of 16-18 who have set up a group to try and get us somewhere we can ride/skate/blade, and we are writing this letter in disgust to the article you featured in the Hereford Times, (January 12) headlined 'Skateboarders Face High Jump.'

In that article you reported that the police were going to and I quote 'clamp down' on people skating in High Town. Which is a fair enough point. However, if the council stopped throwing money down the drain and actually gave us somewhere to go, then the police would not have this problem.

There are a lot of kids trying to get funding for an indoor skate park in Hereford, but the council always turns them down. If the council just gave us a chance to prove ourselves then it would not have to pay extra costs to fix things that skaters use, for example curbs.

People argue that we do have two skate parks, but have you recently seen how vandalised they have got?

The one down in Hunderton just has young drinkers on it who like to smash their glass bottles after they have finished, and like to just basically ruin it. Therefore the council is going to have to put more money back into that to keep repairing it which is an absolute waste.

I know wherever you put a skater park it's going to get vandalised but it's those people who like to spoil it for the rest of us who need to be stopped. The one at Newton Farm has the same problem. It keeps being vandalised etc.

If the council stopped laying roads then digging them up for absolutely no reason, like in the centre of town, as it is wasting money and asked us where we actually want a skate park it would notice it wouldn't have to start resorting to taking police measures.

The council sees us skaters/riders/bladers as menaces to society, however look at those youths who drink on the street and help the crime rate in Hereford, why not use the money creatively? Skate park and a bypass please.

We understand we get judged on what we do. But skating is a recreational sport and can become a profession just like any other hobby.

All we ask is the council to give us a chance and not be so hasty on decisions.

LIAM POTTER, NATASHA WATKINS, CHARLIE McCAULEY, GRANT PEACOCK, The Ramp Project, as from Dorchester Way, Belmont.

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