LIKE many teenagers in villages, Emneth s youngsters were forced to hang around on the streets without many places to go and little in the way of entertainment. But for a group of 15-year-olds, the raised eyebrows as they skated through the village, spurr

LIKE many teenagers in villages, Emneth's youngsters were forced to hang around on the streets without many places to go and little in the way of entertainment.

But for a group of 15-year-olds, the raised eyebrows as they skated through the village, spurred them to come up with a plan.

Four years after approaching the parish council to ask it to build a skate park, �37,000 of funding is now in place and the new facility could be built in the village by Christmas.

Although it may have come too late for some of the original 15-year-olds who came up with the plan, future generations are set to benefit from their hard work and initiative.

Sam Adkin, who is now 20, was one of the teenagers who approached and worked with the village playing field committee.

"It's a bit of a legacy - it will be used for a long time", he said.

"Myself and my friends used to skateboard on the street and in the park and we attracted quite a bit of negativity.

"We decided to take matters into our own hands and took our problem to the parish council."

He added: "They were very supportive to us and they were very helpful and they said that within reason they would support whatever we wanted to do as we went along and looked into it ourselves."

He said it was also older people in the village who were interested in using the skate park.

"People who are 25 and even older said they were interested in using the skate park. People have been saying what a positive idea it is."

He added: "The community has been so supportive and fantastic with us and we've not had many problems with planning permission. We really cannot stress that enough."

"If you look at the one at Tilney St Lawrence, which was built five or six years ago, that's used every day."

Michael Clayton, a trustee of the playing field committee in Emneth, said the lads came up with the idea for the project and were the champions of it.

"We had a committee of adults and they sat on the committee. They looked into different skate parks. They helped us to look at the different proposals and from the skaters' point of view they then drove the project along.

"They have all grown up a bit now and gone to university or work but they all retain an interest in the project.