FOR Oxford’s skateboarders, having a place to call their own is no longer just a pipe dream.

After 23 years the city will finally have its own permanent skatepark in East Oxford.

Oxford Wheels Project has won a long-running battle to replace its old temporary wooden ramps with brand new concrete ones.

Skaters cheered as a city council planning committee on Wednesday gave planning permission for the park to be built in the recreation ground in Meadow Lane.

Wheels Project chairman Jack Richens said: “I was always hopeful that it would go through.

“This has been a long time coming. So many people around the city will use it. The skate park will be an excellent asset for the city.”

Constructing the new ramps is expected to cost around £300,000, which has already been raised by OWP.

The project – beset by planning issues and funding problems over the past decade – cleared its final hurdle last autumn when the Environment Agency dropped its flood risk objection.

Jono Wyborn, 22, of Cowley is a regular user of the current skate park.

He said: “It is fantastic news.

“It has been a long process and finally work can start on it.

“This skate park has been really needed in this city.”

The existing wooden ramps were put in place in 2001 and were meant to stay for only three years.

The land has been leased to the group by the council for 25 years.

Since the application was submitted more than 100 people have written to the council supporting the proposal.

But some objected because of the lack lighting and car parking.

Sarah Wild, of Iffley Fields Residents’ Association, told the committee: “We are not denying that there is a need for this skatepark.

“But what is proposed will require infrastructure and the planning application does not address that.”

But Mr Richens said the park would not be used after dark and most of the people who used it were below driving age.

One of the conditions of the approval was that the skatepark could be used only between the hours of 10am and dusk.