ENTHUSIASTS are urged to get their skates on if they want a skateboarding park.

Middlesbrough Council has sent out 15,000 leaflets and questionnaires asking young people to suggest a location for an arena, the type of surfacing it should have and whether it should be managed.

A free two-day event has been organised for this weekend to find out the strength of feeling for a facility, before the local authority will commit itself to spending £300,000 to £400,000 on a custom-built skating park.

A mobile skate park is being set up at the Prissick Base in the town's Marton Road this Saturday and Sunday.

It will be a large street course with mini ramps, quarter pipes with platforms, a small flat bank, driveways, fly-offs, a grind box, a manual box and various obstacles.

Paul Rabbitts, the council's development manager, said: "Skateboarding is getting bigger and bigger in the town. You get hundreds of people down on the Boulevard at weekends and on an evening, because it is a big, smooth hard surface, which is what they want.

"If you ask them to move on they will say there is nowhere else to move to.

"This weekend's event will give us a chance to find out first hand what young people's views are. We expect people to come from all over the Tees Valley, so it is an important step down the road in deciding whether to create a facility like this.

"We are looking for a big facility. We have professional skaters in this area and there is quite a range of interest from youngsters under ten to people of 25 - right across the board.''

His team has visited skate parks in Perth, Livingston, Sheffield, Coventry, Nuneaton and Carlisle.

Tribe Enterprises, consultants in managing and advising skate park developments throughout the county, are providing the mobile skate park for two days.

It will be open for lining, blading and BMX biking.

Music at the weekend event will be provided by radio station Tfm at the sessions which are noon to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile there are only a few days left for people to contribute to a consultation exercise about developing skateboard facilities in Hartlepool. The questionnaire must be returned by Monday.

Copies of the questionnaire can be obtained from the Civic Centre, Mill House Leisure Centre and all libraries in the area.