ISSUES of anti-social behaviour and general maintenance of Dunstan Park came under scrutiny by Thatcham town councillors last week.
Following a letter submitted to the town council by the Rev. Pete Jarvis of St Mary's and St Barnabas in Thatcham, outlining his concerns over the conditions of the skate park and troublemaking youths in the area, the matter came before Thatcham’s recreation and amenities committee.
Mr Jarvis, who runs local youth group The Beat, said he was asked by local youths to attend the skate park to help with equipment as they could not use the park due to the amount of glass from beer bottles that had been thrown all over the site.
He said: "Upon my arrival I also found loads of litter everywhere from bottles of drinks and cans.
“It took us about two hours to make sure all the glass had gone and we cleared the litter.
“In addition I found out that a group of older lads had been trying to play with fire or set light to the under build to one of the ramps.”
He added that the wooden structure on one ramp needed to be fastened back down for health and safety reasons.
Members of the recreation and amenities committee said that maintenance work in the park was carried out on a regular basis and the area was inspected three times a week.
Services manager Mel Alexander said she had been on a site visit to the park and was satisfied that there were not any health and safety issues, and Glyn Slater (Lib Dem, Thatcham North) put the vandalism mentioned down to “horse play that went too far”.
Sheila Ellison (Con, Thatcham North) said that the idea of putting lighting in the park had previously been discussed and she believed that this could stop the problem of the night time users.
She said: "If the young people want it then they should raise the funds and we can pay for the electricity.
"I hope we can work with him with any future improvements that the young people want considered."
Terry Port (Lib Dem, Thatcham South and Crookham) added: "I'm concerned, as I'm sure we all are, about the issues with the skate park.
"I'm of the opinion that if we carry on with our maintenance the problems will by and large go away."
The committee agreed that in order for improvement works to take place consultation would need to take place with both the young people and the local residents.