UP TO �18,000 will be spent on upgrading equipment at a small skate park in Portishead.

Portishead Town Council has authorised the expenditure to replace equipment at the Merlin Park facility. A report in 2011 showed some equipment to be in a poor state of repair, which was replaced immediately, but the report also advised the need for future upgrades.

The town council has now approved the removal of two pieces of the existing equipment, replacing it with a new jump box and driveway of the same size.

The Merlin Park facility is an extremely popular free outdoor skate park but its size makes it unsuitable for more experienced users; however it cannot be expanded because residents were assured the site would remain that size when planning permission was originally granted a decade ago.

A planning application to add a commercially run indoor skate park to the town’s facilities is currently gathering support.

Online comments for the proposals include: “Portishead has been crying out for this facility for a long time. Having an indoor skate/BMX park will be an ideal solution for those who have opposed plans for an outdoor facility and will allow those who have campaigned for this to get what they want.”

Gordano School student Dan Richardson, aged 16 , says he has been skateboarding for nine years and is delighted with the proposals for the indoor park. He said: “I have talked to the men behind the planned indoor skate park and it all seems extremely promising. All we have had is talk for years but now it actually seems that something is happening and we could have the facility we want so much.”