AN online petition to save Worcester's RampAge skate park from closure has gathered around 70 signatures.

A noise abatement order was served on owners Chris and Gabrielle Buckland on December 18, after complaints from neighbours about the noise of wheels on ramps from the converted Orchard Street warehouse.

The order gives the owners 28 days to submit an acoustic consultant's report with a plan of action for reducing the noise.

Phill Tromans, of Malvern, started the petition urging Worcester City Council to retract the Noise Abatement Order and help RampAge reduce noise to satisfactory levels.

Mr Tromans, who edits a website for inline skaters, said he believed the Bucklands had been given far too little time to solve the soundproofing problem.

"The closure of RampAge so soon after it has opened would be a great loss to the youth community of Worcester and a blow to the UK skate scene," he said.

Around 350 skaters, skateboarders and BMX riders have used the skate park each week since it opened in October.

It has won praise from both parents and police for its responsible organisation, but neighbours in the previously quiet residential suburb have found the noise unacceptable.

"You don't have to be a genius to see that 50 skateboarders on wooden ramps in a building made of sheet metal would be extremely noisy and that it would be very hard to comply with the planning conditions," said one neighbour, Alastair Stewart.

"The Bucklands must have been aware they would not be allowed to continue if they could not keep the noise to an acceptable level."