A skate park in Wisbech will be ready for action in February after work started on the Bath Road venue.

The new skating venue, with state of the art jumps made of concrete ,will replace the old wooden skate park, which gradually rotted away.

Young people began campaigning five years ago to replace the rotten structure and not only raised money but also attended meetings and lobbied for change.

The park has been made possible thanks to £35,000 funding from Fenland District Council.

Councillor Virginia Bucknor said: “It looks pretty exciting. Skaters, bikes and boards will be able to use it.

“Finally, this project is coming to a conclusion and we are chuffed to bits.

“We have 1,500 young people in Waterlees alone before you count all the other Wisbech children”.

Around £35,000 of Section 106 money – funds given by developers to provide amenities – was set aside for the project.

Fenland District Council worked with Wisbech Town Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, local housing provider Clarion Futures, residents and the Oasis Community Centre to help develop the new park.

Councillor Peter Murphy, Fenland District Council’s portfolio holder for environment, said earlier this year that: “There is a considerable amount of community support for this project and it’s great to see a number of organisations and individuals working together to push it along.”

A project called Voices of Wisbech North, covered by the BBC, showed that as long ago as 2003 young people said they wanted councillors to get their skates on and build a park.

In an interview for the BBC 16 years ago one said: “It’s tough being a skateboarder in Wisbech. With no official skateboard park there’s no choice but to skate in public places, which understandably irritates other people.”

As part of the 2003 BBC Cambridgeshire’s Voices project, skaters from the area interviewed Councillor John Clark from Fenland District Council.

They grilled him about the land, funding and most importantly when they would have a safe place of their own to skate.

One young skater said at the time that skate park plans kept getting put off and he felt ‘pretty hacked off’ about it.

• Are you one of the original campaigners who fought for the skate park? If so get in touch to let us know what you think of the finished result.