A 23-YEAR campaign for a permanent skate park in Oxford looks set to move ahead at last.

One of the last obstacles to the East Oxford park has been lifted after the Environment Agency dropped its objections over flooding risks.

And Oxford City Council has included the park on its “upcoming applications” list, so it could be given the go-ahead early in the new year.

But the skaters behind the £300,000 plan for a site in Meadow Lane said the delays had cost them thousands of pounds and more money would need to be raised before the park becomes a reality.

The Oxford Wheels Project submitted plans for a set of concrete ramps in May, after years of problems over planning issues, leases and fundraising. But due to the Environment Agency’s concerns about possible flooding around the site, the council delayed a decision on the planning application.

Project committee member Mon Barber said: “We’ve put in the planning application in May and still after all this time, we have nothing.

“I have spent 23 years trying to get a skate park in Oxford but we still don’t have it.

“All this waiting has lost us thousands in grants that have expired. We’re not sure we’ve still got our Lottery funding.

“Not to mention the £8,000 it has taken in noise samples, soil samples, tackling tree and flooding issues, just to get it to this stage.”

Skaters currently use temporary wooden ramps on the site that were built in 2001 to last just three years, with the expectation permanent facilities would soon follow.

Mr Barber, who runs the SS20 skate shop, in Cowley Road, said: “This is something the council should have built in the first place, so it’s a joke that we’ve had to jump through all these hoops.”

“Even if we do get planning permission now, we still have so much money to raise.

“So to ask how long it’ll be before it’s built is like asking how long a piece of string is.

“And I just don’t know if the enthusiasm is still there. The process is just taking so long.”

In October, Wheels Project chairman Jack Richens told the Oxford Mail: “Oxford has got a great heritage. Some of the best skaters in the world come from Oxford, which is crazy, because they’ve never had anything to skate on.

“Imagine how well they’ll do when we actually give them something to skate on.”

City council spokesman Louisa Dean said: “The Meadow Lane skate park planning application will be going to committee in January for determination.

“There had been some minor delay regarding the environmental impact at the site, however, a flood risk assessment has now been carried out.”