AN APPLICATION to lease land at Portishead’s Lake Grounds for the creation of a skate park has been recommended for refusal.

A document published on the North Somerset Council website recommends the authority refuses the request from the Portishead Skatepark Project to lease land at the Lake Grounds for the next 25 years.

This would have been at a peppercorn rent and would have enabled the group to begin raising the �225,000 needed to create the skate park.

North Somerset Council owns the land at the Lake Grounds and so PSP needed the authority’s consent to continue with the project.

Planning permission for a skate facility at the Lake Grounds was granted on appeal in November after PSP worked for many years to identify a suitable site.

The application for landlord’s consent was submitted in August and included details about CCTV, a youth engagement strategy and the ongoing management and maintenance of the site.

PSP spokesman Liese Stanley said: “This is contrary to what the majority of residents in Portishead have asked for and contrary to the planning decision.

“Not one department at North Somerset Council objected to a skate park throughout the planning process.

“I am really at a loss as to how they got to their decision.

“Why are North Somerset not listening to the views of Portishead residents and their own officers?”

The North Somerset Council document is due to be signed off by executive members Peter Bryant and Tony Lake, as well as the director of finance and resources, Phil Hall.