YOUNGSTERS are breaking into a construction site and using it as a play area - and could be putting their lives at risk.Residents living around the site of the new skatepark on Orwell Green at Felixstowe say they have regularly seen young children getting in despite the six-feet high metal barriers.

YOUNGSTERS are breaking into a construction site and using it as a play area - and could be putting their lives at risk.

Residents living around the site of the new skatepark on Orwell Green at Felixstowe say they have regularly seen young children getting in despite the six-feet high metal barriers.

Contractors have excavated a large area ready for the skatepark, which is to be built below ground level, and there is a huge mountain of top soil on the green in Grange Farm Avenue.

Youngsters aged about nine or ten have been caught on camera running up and down the soil mound and also in the compound climbing on diggers and other machinery.

Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator for the area John Cresswell said he was very concerned about the danger to the youngsters - especially with the possibility of the soil mountain shifting and the children falling or being trapped in a dirt avalanche.

“We have been out and turfed these kids off the site and I know my neighbours have, too, but action needs to be taken as quickly as possible and the security really stepped up,” he said.

A Suffolk Coastal spokesman said: “We have advised the contractors that we are aware of two occasions when the police have been called out to deal with people inside the site and once when they are attempting to get in.”

Introducing increased security patrols would add to the project cost, and the council appealed for people seeing anyone on site outside working hours to contact the police immediately.

Is the security at the site good enough? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk