YOUNGSTERS in Rishton could soon have a skate park, thanks to a local group.

The Friends of Rishton Youth, have put together £12,050 which they are hoping to use to build the small facility, of two ramps and a bar, on the playground off Harwood Road.

The area is known as the Top Rec and the plans are part of the Friends of Rishton Youth's scheme to start to include teenagers as well as children in the area's playgrounds.

The group was also developing the Top Rec with swings and a roundabout but the scheme was cancelled last year when Hyndburn Council hit a financial crisis.

When the authority discovered it faced a £1.8million deficit, a number of cutbacks were made. The development is on hold until next year.

But the group, set up four years ago, has raised enough for the small skate facility from a donation and two grants.

A spokesman for the group said: "Young people get a very bad press because of the few, loud and disrespectful youths who choose to hang around outside off-licences.

"They deserve facilities just as other sections of society do."

Today the plans were praised by a local councillor.

Coun Ann Scaife, Rishton representative, said: "It's lovely that people have done this for themselves. They are a fantastic group and they can plug into outside money to get funds to help them to do it, where the council could not have."