A LOTTERY fund which is very difficult to tap into has granted a group of Hatherleigh youngsters £4,000 to help create a skatepark.

The determined teenagers were all ready to raise the funds to build a skateboard ramp when the news came that their application had been successful.

Stunned chairman of the Hatherleigh Skatepark Initiative Giles Jacobs is delighted.

'I really did not think we would get any money,' he said. 'Hatherleigh is a little place and I thought the lottery board might not take a group of teenagers seriously.

'We had lost heart a bit because we didn't hear anything for a while so when the letter came it was a complete surprise.'

The teenagers were encouraged to form a group by Mayor Denise Herrod- Taylor and her band of councillors who held a meeting last year to find out what young people wanted in the town.

The town council offered a piece of land in the Island Park for a skateboard ramp and the Hatherleigh Skatepark Initiative was born. Almost straight away the boys began looking into funding sources.

With help from one of the mums and development officer from West Devon Borough Council Jo Heuze an application to the lottery was made.

The boys even made a video so their appeal for funds would stand out from the crowd.

Jo Heuze said the Millennium Festival Awards for All Scheme, which was ending in June, was very difficult to get funding from.

'There are so many bids going in for this,' she said. 'It is for projects between £500 and £5,000 and it is very oversubscribed. For the group to get nearly the maximum is very very good.'

She said although supervision had to be given by a parent to put forward the application, the youngsters had done most of the hard work themselves.

Mayor Denise Herrod-Taylor said: 'They really deserve this grant because of all the work they put in.

'As a town council we thought it was important they should take the initiative and they can now feel really proud of what they achieved.'

The skateboard ramp will mean the young people no longer have to use the roads which was causing some disquiet amongst local residents.

Giles said skateboarding was very popular in Hatherleigh and he knew several other people interesting in taking it up now the town was to have its own ramp.

'It's not just for Hatherleigh but for others who have had to travel to Plymouth in the past for this kind of facility,' he said.

'We trust people to use it properly and if we find someone messing around on it they will not use it again.

'We feel very lucky to get this money and will make sure the ramp is looked after.'