New Falmouth skatepark celebrated after 15-year campaign to build permanent rink

• Watch our report from Charlotte Gay

After 15 years in the making Falmouth has finally declared its permanent skatepark officially open.

The skatepark actually opened earlier this summer ahead of schedule but hundreds turned out to celebrate the hard work to make it a reality at the town's Skate Fete.

Adults, teenagers and young children have all been making up for lost time as Falmouth has been without any ramps for a decade.

Young Flo said the new park is "really fun" for her and her friends on their scooters to have a dedicated place to play.

"It's really smooth so you don't bump and trip as much and I don't have to stop and wait for dogs and walkers to go by."

Freddie came to watch his brother skate and said: "There's a real variety of people who may not be that good and people who are good."

Lots of parents who skated since childhood joined their children on the ramps, including Charlie and his dad Tom Hicks.

Charlie said he likes it because "it's a good place to go, have fun and meet some of your friends and meet new people."

While Tom said even just walking over lots of his son's friends were heading to the skate park as well making it "something great for the community to use."

The bespoke rink by the Dracaena Centre has been a labour of love for people in the town who, despite financial challenges over the years, rallied the community to raise £42,000 for the concrete park.

The project was finally able to get off the ground with the help of £145,000 from the National Lottery Community fund.

Cllr Kirstie Edwards said it's been a passion project for her and the Skatepark Committee to get the project over the line."Kids need somewhere they can be a bit freer. They need somewhere that they can go in their own time, there's no cost, they can rock up without their parents but know they're safe."

She said the park has been a great place for "positive role modelling" with older skaters teaching the youngsters and "build those relationships".

The town used to have a temporary metal skate park but that had to be dismantled after it became unsafe to use.

Alex Brinnen, Chair of the Skatepark Committee, said the old park was built on a tennis court so it could be easily dismantled "because at the time people thought skateboarding, scootering, BMX was a fad."

"Cut to now, skateboarding, scootering, skating are in the Olympics, it's here to stay."

While the main skatepark is complete there are further works around the site still to come including public toilets, seating, a planting project for the surrounding land and better access for the car park.

However due to the costs involved, this will require additional funding.