WITH the government wringing its hands over childhood obesity, you would think that young people wanting to spend all day out of doors taking exercise would be something to be applauded. But four fanatic skateboarders from Dawlish, say that wherever they go it's soon made clear to them that they are unwelcome. The frustrated 12 and 13-year olds, all students at Dawlish Community College, say they've been chased, ticked off by police and had their home-made ramp thrown into the river. Sam Gover and Ciaran Miles even pleaded with Dawlish Town Council last October for proper facilities and were promised that some would be provided. But almost one year on, there is still nowhere official for them to practice. 'Exeter is great. There are two skate parks,' said Connor Knight. The only snag is it costs £4 return on the bus to get there. The other nearest ramp is at Exmouth. Jack Brint said: 'It gets boring. There's nowhere for us to go.' Sam Gover said: 'The police will drive past and say, "can you move on" and you say, "where to?" 'At the bandstand drunk people came over and start lobbing stuff at us and started trying to take our skateboards. We have a ramp that we have made and they chucked it in the river.' At Marine Parade, residents of the old people's home phoned the police. 'We can understand their situation but we just get told to go away. They are not nice to us. We got chased by a man with a wooden pole.' Connor Knight said: 'If they come out all angry, we will come out angry. One old woman says she's fighting for us to have a skateboard park. If people give respect to us, we give respect to them.' Stumped for anywhere else to go, he broke into the deserted grounds of Westcliff School but a resident called the police and he was given a warning. He thinks skateboarding has got an undeserved bad reputation. 'It's not anti-social, it's just occupying yourself.' Deputy mayor Cllr Rosalind Prowse said that Dawlish Town Council has put aside £150,000 for youth facilities, with match funding from Devon County Council. Teignbridge Council has donated a piece of land. But in order to squeeze a skate park on the site, it would have to go under the building, almost doubling the estimated cost of £600,000 to more than £1 million. She said a fundraising committee was working hard to get grant aid and lottery money but that it could easily take five years – probably too late for today's generation of teenagers. 'I sincerely hope they get the money as it started 10 years ago. I do understand why they get frustrated. It is hard when that is the thing you really love doing.'
