A 15-YEAR-OLD skateboarder is leading a campaign which calls upon bosses at Bolton Council to build a skate park in the town.

Joe Cowie was furious when he learned that taxpayers' money is to be spent buying railings for the steps of Bolton Town Hall in a bid to keep skateboarders away.

The council originally planned to install £90,000 3ft bronze railings on the landing between the two flights of town hall steps.

But now it has modified the proposals and will put up cheaper cast iron railings, costing £50,000.

But Joe, a pupil at Thornleigh Salesian College, who lives in Ripon Avenue, Heaton, wants the council to spend money on a skatepark in Bolton town centre instead.

And he and fellow skateboarders are organising a petition urging the council to take action.

He said there are no skateboard facilities in Bolton and that, along with his friends, he has to travel to Clitheroe to use a skatepark.

He said: "To put these railings up just isn't right and they're just wasting the money when they should be spending it on helping young people out.

"Skateboarding is really good exercise and all we want is somewhere to go and skate. I would urge everybody to support our campaign."

Another skateboarder, Henry Holland, aged 14, of Lower Austins, Lostock, also wants money to be spent on a skatepark: Henry, a Rivington and Blackrod High School pupil, said: "Every time we go to the town centre, we get kicked off and we have nowhere to go.

"Instead of spending the money stopping us from doing something we enjoy that is healthy, they should be spending it on a new park."

Skateboarder Tom Searson, aged 13, also a pupil at Rivington and Blackrod, said: "I'm really annoyed. Instead of forcing us to stop doing something we enjoy, that's good for us, they should be helping us out."

The youngsters also have the backing of their parents,.

Joe's father, Ross Cowie, said: "It just seems such a shame that the council is spending all this money on preventative measures when it could be spending it on doing something positive for the youngsters.

"Bolton is a big town and other places of a similar size have at least one skatepark, but Bolton doesn't even have one."

Until recently, there was privately owned skatepark, Bones, in Gilnow Lane, Bolton. It was run by Neil Whitcher, who struggled to keep it afloat amid increasing debt and vandal attacks.

He remortgaged his house in a bid to save the park, but eventually closed it three months ago.

It is expected the railings will be installed on the town hall steps in the spring.

A council spokesman said: "The £50,000 measures for the town hall are to protect an area prone to vandalism and graffiti. Skateboarding has been prohibited on Victoria Square for a number of years, following complaints from members of the public and concerns about public safety.

"We have been asked to review options to provide skate boarding facilities in the town centre and are preparing a report."