YOUNG people who spearheaded a 50,000 skatepark project in Chagford will mark its official opening next week, after five years of hope, perseverence and dedication. Listed at the top of every Chagford teenager?s wish-list in the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative in 2001, the skate and ride park has come about through dogged fundraising and a community pulling together. The result has been described as ?just brilliant? ? and it does not stop there as a £30,000 campaign to provide advanced equipment has already started. Members of Whiddon Youth Forum will skate through the ceremonial ribbon at the site in Jubilee Park next Wednesday (October 25) and a celebration cake will be arriving by skateboard. Adult co-ordinator for the forum Vicki Cairns said auctions, concerts and a community bric-a-brac shop raised money for the project and grants had been awarded from the likes of West Devon Borough Council and the Community Fund. Chagford Parish Council donated the land in the park. ?It has been very hard work because there is a lot of competition out there but people in the community have been so supportive,? she said. This was evident when an auction and cabaret night brought in £7,000. The park has been used for a few weeks ahead of the official ceremony, and Mrs Cairns, who has a teenage son, said the sights since then had made all the hard work worthwhile. ?It?s just brilliant. There was absolutely nothing for the youngsters to do before this ?they did not even have a youth club. All they did was hang about in the square but since the skate and ride park opened it has been packed out. ?On Saturdays there are 30 to 40 people using it from the ages of five to 20 and they come from all around the area, not just Chagford.? She said a lot of research had gone into the jumps which were for beginners and those at intermediate level because it was a residential area and they needed to be fairly quiet. ?We have not had any complaints so things are going well,? she said. ?It is very satisfying when you see everyone using it.?