TEENAGERS in a North Yorkshire town have been given a space of their own - until their local community decides if it wants a skatepark and where it should be.

A £6,000 youth shelter has been put in Eastgate car park, Pickering, thanks to a grant from Safer Ryedale.

The cash was initially granted to purchase two shelters, for skate parks in Malton and Norton, and Pickering.

Although the Malton and Norton skatepark is now up and running complete with a shelter in Norton, a similar project in Pickering has not got off the ground.

County Councillor Betsy Hill, who is on a steering group set up to look at the proposal, said they had identified a suitable site next to the recreation ground in Mill Lane.

But officials from neighbouring sports clubs were against the idea, she said.

"At the moment it's all on hold. It's somewhat frustrating that it seems to be the establishment in Pickering who don't want this.

"People say there are problems with kids skateboarding in the market place and in Smiddy Hill, but that is because they have nowhere else to go."

Tony Denning, chairman of Pickering Football Club, denied they were against the plans to have a skatepark in the town.

"We are not against the idea but we want to see it somewhere else," he said.

"We only have a little bit of land and we want to keep that."

Mr Denning said they planned to use the land as extra training space for the many youth teams they worked with.

"Youth teams in football and cricket are very healthy in Pickering and we should be promoting that," he said. Ryedale Police youth action officer Stewart Ashton admitted the current site for the youth shelter was not ideal.

"I think there is a potential for problems on the site," he said.

"Should the scale of problems increase, and the youth shelter has the opposite effect to what we hope, then the shelter is fully portable.

"The idea is to have it there for a six-month trial and then assess the impact."

Updated: 10:35 Tuesday, July 29, 2003