Barrie Oakhill, of Teignmouth, writes:

It is good to see in the Teignmouth Post that residents' concerns about yobs using the skate park at night are being taken seriously.

Throughout the summer months the skate park was in use frequently until well after midnight and as late as 3am on several occasions and just the slap and crack of the skateboards in the early hours of the morning was distressing to anyone trying to get some sleep.

The anti-social behaviour included shouting, drinking and swearing. Unfortunately it was found that the police were not logging complaints of incidents where more than one resident complained, so many of the residents felt that to complain was a waste of time.

In effect it meant that if ten residents complained about a particularly noisy event it was recorded as only one complaint. At last week's meeting the police agreed to rectify this obvious flaw in the reporting system.

It is good to see the town council taking a proactive stance on this issue as the district council appears to lack the political ambition to sort it out. The late night problems are generally skateboarders in their late teens and early 20s, often arriving by car, to use and abuse the facility. Unfortunately, the antics of late night users reflect on all skateboarders and it must be acknowledged that the youngsters using the skate park in the day and evenings produce no serious problems.

All genuine skateboarders should commend the council on this crackdown before the inevitable increase in use during the spring and summer months.

At the meeting of residents and Teignbridge Council last week the point was made that, despite the council saying at previous meetings that action would be taken against people using the skate park as late as 2am, little was being done.

At the previous meeting, the police had announced that it was not illegal to use the skate park at any time throughout the night as no bylaw banning late night use had been passed by the council. The police could apparently only act if anti-social behaviour such as swearing, drinking, drug taking, etc, was in evidence.

As winter has set in, the number of people using the skatepark late at night has radically reduced, but next spring, with the advent of warmer weather, we undoubtedly will see the problem arise again unless a bylaw is passed.

At the meeting with the council last week to discuss residents' problems it was noticeable that not one senior officer of Teignbridge Council attended, nor any of the district councillors who had so vigorously supported the proposal to build the skate park.

Residents felt that these same officials who attended every promotional event in force and who pushed the proposal through without the promised planning consent were not now prepared to face up to the problems their actions had produced.

At the same meeting Teignskate pointed out that it was not their members using the skatepark in the early hours of the morning, but that is no consolation to residents.

In reality a crackdown on the yobs using the skate park late at night should have Teignskate's full support as these same yobs are giving all skateboarders a bad name.

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