TAVISTOCK'S young skaters were reeling after discovering the town council had started building a basketball court on land set aside for a skate park, writes Alan Gregory.

Council workmen began preparing the ground for a basketball court in Benson's Meadow earlier this week — the skaters fear there will be little room left for their ramps.

Bob Pilbeam, chairman of Taviskate — a co-operative of the town's skaters, skateboarders and BMXers — said the potential for an adequately-sized skate park would be 'severely dented' if the work went ahead.

The council blamed a breakdown in communications and has now halted work pending negotiations.

The basketball hoops were donated by the English Basketball Association, but there is a condition that they must be erected inside certain time limits — already expired.

'No doubt the EBBA will be delighted that their needs are being given precedence over the three-year-old requests and negotiations for a skatepark carried out by Taviskate with the town council,' said Mr Pilbeam.

He added that he was very disappointed, especially as Taviskate was looking forward to signing a partnership agreement shortly with both the town and borough councils and Youthwize — to give the green light for fundraising and the building of the facility.

'There is room to meet everyone's needs in Benson's Meadow with a bit of forethought and consultation,' he said. 'There are already basketball facilities in a number of places around the town that get limited use, but only the small ramp for skaters who desperately need a purpose-built skate park.'

Cllr Peter Donkin, chairman of the town council's properties committee, said there was a 'verbal agreement for the town council to provide space for a skate park in Benson's Meadow'.

'But the town council was also offered some basketball nets free, provided we could provide the hard-standing to put them on,' he said. 'The decision was taken to put them in strategic places around the town and one place was Benson's Meadow.'

Mr Donkin said some of the youngsters were anxious this would not leave them enough space and the council had put a stop to the work while it held discussions with the skaters to see how the situation could be rectified.

He said the council would also talk to the EBBA to see if it were happy with the situation, but he was confident the disagreement could be resolved.