A NEW £65,000 skatepark has opened in Chalgrove – thanks to the hard work of three teenage skateboard and BMX enthusiasts.

Zac Payne, Alex Goodchild and Chris Bell, all 16, approached Chalgrove Parish Council a year ago asking for improvements to be made to the facilities.

And after forming a youth forum and working closely with two adult mentors, the trio brought the idea from being a ‘half-pipe’ dream to reality.

It was officially opened on Saturday.

BMXer Zac said: “We thought to ourselves ‘let’s try and get a better skate park’ because ours was pretty rubbish and we wanted to learn new tricks but couldn’t because of the facilities.

“We went to the parish clerk and she seemed quite interested, and it went from there.”

The teens have been involved at every stage of the process, applying for funding, making presentations, helping design the park, working with contractor Bendcrete and setting up a Facebook group, with 170 members to date, to keep the rest of the village informed of their progress.

Zac said: “We never really thought we would see the day it would actually be finished so it really is amazing.

“It’s brilliant and we are getting more people of different ages coming down.

“It’s also a really nice social place to meet your friends.”

Originally, the skate park had just three ramps.

Some of those have been utilised in the new design, with one old ramp remaining unchanged.

There are also six different quarter pipes, and features including a spine, a volcano and a vert-wall.

Zac, who is a pupil at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College, said: “This process has taught me a lot of life skills as well.

“I’ve learned that if you want something, you can succeed if you try for it.”

Chris, a pupil at Wallingford School, said: “It’s really good.

“There is an amazing sense of achievement as we have seen it from just an idea a year ago, to actually now being built.

“It’s been a lot of hard work but I have learned things that I would never have been able to do two years ago, like doing presentations and speaking in front of big crowds.”

The youth forum will now help young people in neighbouring villages and towns work on improving their skate park facilities.

Parish clerk Carol Fowler, who is also an adult mentor to the youth forum, said: “This is a good example of how the youth can be involved and make their dreams come true.”

About £45,000 of the funding for the extension came from Wren, which distributes landfill tax credits, £12,000 from South Oxfordshire District Council and the rest from Chalgrove Parish Council.