A NEW skate park for Huntingdon could come a step closer next week. The district council s planners are being asked to approve a £180,000 skate park near the railway line at Stukeley Meadows – the area where most of the town centre skaters live. Equipment

A NEW skate park for Huntingdon could come a step closer next week.

The district council's planners are being asked to approve a £180,000 skate park near the railway line at Stukeley Meadows - the area where most of the town centre skaters live.

Equipment at the 38-metre by 32-metre (125 by 105 feet) site will rise to a maximum height of 3.8 metres (12.5 ft) and will be lit by four 10-metre (33 ft) lamps and covered by closed circuit television surveillance.

Members of the council's development control panel will have to decide on Monday whether the park's impact on the surrounding area is acceptable, as planning officers believe.

They say that, apart from the lamp posts, it would not be readily visible from the north, but would, however, be seen from homes in Haweswater.

Planners accept that it would generate some noise, but not such as to affect residents adversely. The equipment likely to generate the highest noise levels will be installed furthest from nearby homes and the lights are likely to be turned off by 10pm.

Network Rail, which owns the adjacent East Coast main line has asked the council to impose conditions that keep the line secure from trespass.

If consent is given, the district council wants Huntingdon Town Council to pay the estimated £10,000-a-year cost of maintaining the facility. The two councils are still in negotiations.