KIDS in Neilston will soon have their very own skatepark in which to practise their skills.

Construction work on a skate bowl is set to begin at the village’s SPT overspill car park after East Renfrewshire Council (ERC) was successful in its £90,000 grant application to Waste Recycling ENvironmental (WREN).

WREN distributes funds to communities who are in the vicinity of landfill sites for community, biodiversity or heritage projects.

The local authority will contribute £30,000 towards the project but the new skatepark was the brainchild of Neilston Community Council (NCC) and younger residents.

Eager to offer children and teens in the community an alternative to “loitering about”, community council members have been pushing for money to be made available for such a facility for five years.

A survey completed by youngsters from the area showed many were keen to see a skatepark built in Neilston and those wishes will now be granted.

John Scott, NCC chairman, was pleased to finally break the news and said: “It’s been a long, slow process but at last there is light at the end of the tunnel and everything is now in place to start the construction later this year.”

Despite coming up with the idea, the chairman explained it was the landowners who had to apply for the money required for the project.

Mr Scott continued: “The idea of improving facilities for the youth of the village was discussed at a community council meeting in January 2012.

“Alcohol Awareness had given a talk a few months earlier and part of their work involved explaining to young folk the benefit of restricting alcohol intake.

“Community policemen, who attend all community council meetings, would regularly report they had had to move on groups of youths who were loitering about, often quite noisily, and such groups could appear rather threatening.

“A common factor seemed to be complaints from youths that they had ‘nothing to do’ in the village.”

Mr Scott added: “Aware that the devil finds work for idle hands, the community council decided to look further into youth facilities in the village and approached Suzie Reid from Young Persons Services, who runs the Neilston Youth Club, to see if we could have a dialogue with the youngsters of the village and get some suggestions from them as to how we could improve the village for them.

“The site was chosen for various reasons, not least the fact that the car park gets transformed into an impromptu skatepark in the evenings but also, because of its irregular shape, this patch of ground is unsuitable for much else.”

Work on the skatepark is expected to start at the end of the summer.

A final meeting between NCC members, designers and the youths who have played a part in its creation is due to take place later this month.