THE skateboard park will finally open in Bewdley by the spring while another is now being planned for the town.

Permission has finally been granted to put in three ramps and a shelter at Shaw Hedge Road in Wribbenhall.

The facility is scheduled for a late March or early April opening.

Efforts will also now be made to put in a skate park at Bark Hill, on the other side of the River Severn, closer to the town centre.

Former mayor and Bewdley town councillor, Jeremy Ferguson, who has driven the scheme, said: "It is a very small step that we should have taken some time ago.

"Because we have put a small one on the Wribbenhall side of the river, we need to balance things out and put one on the Bewdley side of the river.

"I am very pleased to be going forward. It is the first step in a long road. We have a lot of work to do."

Responding to objections from residents over the Wribbenhall plan, he said the skate park would cut loutish behaviour and not become a "magnet for trouble".

A total of 26 letters and a petition with 25 signatures objected to the plan, members of the district council's planning (development control) committee were told when meeting to consider the application on Tuesday last week.

Fears included noise, traffic and an increase in bad behaviour at the site.

A 105-signature petition, however, supported the proposal and West Mercia Constabulary's crime risk manager said the facility would "not have any impact on the likelihood of crime and disorder occurring". The council's case officer, Paul Round, agreed.

Councillor John Campion said at the meeting: "I think to provide the children of the area with a facility that will help them keep away from causing anti-social behaviour in other parts of the area.

"It will give them something to do which is an essential part of what we do as an authority."

The application was put forward by Wyre Forest Community Housing, which will maintain the site.