CHILDREN as young as primary age will be asked to decide what they want as play equipment and to get involved in fund-raising for their skatepark.

Ledbury town councillor Lily Fieldhouse is helping to set up a skatepark management committee formed of local youngsters, with a start-date pencilled in for the new year. Already, she has identified five or six older teenagers who are keen to get involved with the project, which could lead to new equipment at the popular facility on the recreation ground. But Coun Fieldhouse, who is 24 and the town’s youngest councillor, is keen for younger children to get involved as well.

She said: “I think it’s important for the younger users to get more involved, which could involve fundraising for extra equipment.

“It’s vital that there are facilities for young people, especially as we don’t have a youth centre any more.”

Coun Fieldhouse will make contact with both the John Masefield High School and Ledbury Primary to find possible keen members for the committee.

The move has been welcomed by Julie Duckworth, headteacher at Ledbury Primary School, who said: “I think it is important that younger children will be involved so that they can have a say in what items of equipment are included at the skatepark.

“It should be a skatepark that caters for all ages.”

At present, many of the users of the popular facility are of high school age or older.