CONGLETON skateboarders could have a long-awaited home of their own by next spring alongside the town's leisure centre.

A £63,000 skatepark is earmarked for land near the centre for the scores of local teenagers who enjoy the sport.

The youngsters are moved on from car parks and other places where they practice, and look enviously at skateparks at other towns in the borough.

They were hoping to see work on the Congleton skatepark start by this autumn, but it has been held up by various funding and technical issues.

Preparatory work on the project should start in the new year, and if everything goes to plan the skatepark should be completed by the end of March.

Sandbach, Middlewich and Alsager youngsters have their own skateparks, and Congleton teenagers have been fighting to have one in their town.

Their cause was taken up by a group of adults who formed a steering committee to spearhead a fund-raising campaign.

Shopkeeper Frank Holt and councillor Margaret Williamson are two of the members of the committee, which has raised almost £14,000 towards the scheme.

Mr Holt was frustrated that work on the skatepark had not begun, and said the skateboarders had doubts whether it would ever be built.

He had hoped the skatepark would be completed by the end of this year because it was due to be called Congleton Jubilee Skatepark.

"Young people keep coming into my shop all the time to ask me what is happening about the skatepark," said Mr Holt.

"They think they are never going to get it, and that I am telling them fibs.

"We were promised work would start in September, then it was November and now it is January."

Borough council officers have drawn up a report on the skatepark they will be putting to portfolio holder David Brown for his approval.

The report seeks his go-ahead to approach an alternative supplier of skatepark equipment and for the slight resiting of the skatepark.

Landscape services manager Philip van Schijndel said the council expected to choose between one of two suppliers by December 20.

It would then be 10 to 12 weeks for the delivery and installation of the equipment, which could be completed by March 21.

Officers had been looking at the siting of the skatepark to avoid causing problems for support vehicles for the fair, he said, and various funding issues had had to be resolved.