A GROUP of teenagers from Reedley have presented a petition to Pendle Council containing 167 signatures to ask for a skate park in their neighbourhood.

Council officers met with five members of the group to talk about their wishes and what they would like to see on the park.

But parks outreach officer Fred Stewart said it would be wiser to wait until a proposed Children's and Youth Play Area Strategy is developed towards the end of this year.

He said: "Our service manager has just got some money to appoint consultants to do the strategy and skate parks will be one of the things included in the strategy. We are hoping to complete it by October and November so for the length of time in between we could do with hanging on and looking at the skate park as part of that.

"When the strategy is done it will give us a better chance to get external funding."

The estimated cost of providing a skate park would be £50,000.

Gillian Wright, whose 16-year-old son Andrew and 13-year-old daughter Suzanne have campaigned for the park, said she was proud of the effort they had made.

Mrs Wright, of Martinfields, said: "It's only recently that there became a large group of young people in this area and when they all got together they decided they needed somewhere to play. People only put up with gangs hanging around for so long and they get fed up of them being on the streets.

"They thought they ought to engage public opinion and it is local residents who have signed the petition. There's been four or five of them going round getting names."

A piece of land with a minimum asphalt area of 20 metres by 30 metres would be needed and land available under the control of the parks, cemeteries and outdoor recreation department is limited to two sites at Parsons Clough and Benthead Playing Fields.

Parsons Clough has an equipped playground that is coming to the end of its useful life.

Mr Stewart said an alternative for the site could be to remove the existing play facilities and replace them with a skate park.

Bent Head is provided for sports use and has been given a high priority in the proposed outdoor recreation strategy.

Mr Stewart said: "We don't have a lot of land in the Reedley area so we are very limited. The group I met, who were about 12 and 13 years old, came up with a possible design for the area which included flat banks, grinder rails and fun boxes."