A SKATE park for young people and improvements to road safety are both on the wish list for the new Mayor of Ramsey, Councillor Ian Walker. This is the first time he has been mayor, having served on the council for three years and having been deputy mayor

A SKATE park for young people and improvements to road safety are both on the wish list for the new Mayor of Ramsey, Councillor Ian Walker.

This is the first time he has been mayor, having served on the council for three years and having been deputy mayor for two. Cllr Walker, 59, said the town council was hoping to bring a mobile skate park to Ramsey before the end of July and, if that generated enough interest, there could be plans for a permanent skate park.

Cllr Walker told The Hunts Post: "Now that the Grand Cinema and Russells Club have closed there is nowhere for young people to go. We are hoping to have mobile skate park in Ramsey for three or four evenings to gauge what interest there is in it. This is what the youth group, who compiled the Street Life DVD, said they wanted. However, it depends on the level of interest. When the mobile skate park went to Warboys six months ago, only a few people turned up."

Cllr Walker, a retired accountant who has lived in Ramsey Mereside for 18 years, having moved there from Yorkshire, also wants to tackle the problem of speeding in Ramsey.

He said: "We have the problem of the Forty Foot Bank road and I think the proposal for average speed cameras is a good idea. We also have a speeding problem in Mereside. We don't have any speed cameras here, we just have flashing 30 mile an hour signs. People do tend to slow down when they see these signs but I don't think many people actually drive through Mereside at 30 miles an hour. If you do, you get overtaken."

Cllr Walker will have his wife, Sue, as mayoress. The couple have two grown-up children, Ben and Victoria. The Deputy Mayor of Ramsey is Councillor Pat Taylor, a former mayor.