Skate mistake: I am writing on behalf of the many adult skateboarders throughout County Durham.

After finding out about the up and coming skate park plans, we could not hide our disappointment. Is our council really prepared to waste £230,000 on three tarmacked parks? Have they not learnt from the failure of other towns who have made the same expensive mistake.

These places have resulted in yet more gathering places for young criminals and drug abusers. The money could be used on a large concrete park that would bring thousands of pounds worth of tourism to Durham City as well as bringing our skate community closer together.

Skateboarders travel from all over the world to visit concrete parks such as: Newcastle, Redcar, South Shields, Silksworth, Livingston, Perth and Leeds, to name but a few.

It seems our council is all set to spend a quarter of a million pounds on not one, but three parks, guaranteed to be social bad spots.

Skaters will refuse to visit these parks due to the fact that they have seen this bad planning happen time and time again, always with the same results.

We have been given a chance to put Durham on the world's skating map, while also bringing tourists and money. Obviously the organisers think they know more than people who have skated for over 15 years, all over the world.

Now let's sit back and watch the inevitable happen. What a waste.

Angela Grove, Durham

Council image

I refer to 'Leader faces misconduct complaint' (Advertiser August 28). It is stated that the current leader of Chester-le-Street District Council, Coun Linda Ebbatson, vowed to 'clean up the tarnished image of the authority' on taking over from me following my retirement in 2003.

Coun Ebbatson is currently under investigation by the Standards Board and in case your readers are under any misapprehension, at no time during my 12 years as leader was either the council or a councillor accused of any wrongdoing. No councillor was ever reported to the Standards Board and, on the rare occasion when a resident took up a matter with the Ombudsman, the council won the case.

In addition, the council was regularly complimented by District Audit for its financial prudence and probity. There was no 'tarnished image' to clean up.

Malcolm Pratt MBE DL

Leader, Chester-le-Street District Council 1991-2003