NOT on your bike . . . but on your skateboard for Felixstowe's mayor Joan Sennington.Mrs Sennington is supporting the project to build a skatepark for the resort's youngsters as one of her two charities for her year in office and so took to a skateboard for the first time to see what it was like.

NOT on your bike . . . but on your skateboard for Felixstowe's mayor Joan Sennington.

Mrs Sennington is supporting the project to build a skatepark for the resort's youngsters as one of her two charities for her year in office and so took to a skateboard for the first time to see what it was like.

She said: “It was great fun - but quite difficult to balance though.

“The youngsters at the Felixstowe Skatepark Association at the Level Two youth centre are working very hard to promote the park and raise funds and I wanted to support their efforts.”

Part of the proceeds from the Mayor's Ball at the Hotel Elizabeth Orwell on April 11 will go to the project to build a skatepark on the playing field at Orwell Green off Grange Farm Avenue.

The park is set to cost more than £180,000 and so far around £110,000 has been raised.

Felixstowe Town Council has backed the project with £30,000, while Suffolk Coastal's cabinet agreed £15,000 and a further £40,000 has been set aside from the council's playspace fund, generated from housing developments in the town, and £25,000 has been received from the Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund.

Permission has been granted for a 20 metre by 30-metre skateboard and BMX park.

It will be built 1.2 metres below ground level, with landscaped mounds on three sides to cut noise. There will be floodlighting, CCTV, and an alcohol ban, and the area will be monitored by police.

The youngsters in the association have been involved in designing the park, and are holding a number of fundraising initiatives, including copper collections, making skating videos, running live music gigs, and a letter writing campaign asking businesses in the town to chip in.

The Mayor's Ball is also supporting the Felixstowe Royal Artillery Army Cadet Force.

Tickets for the ball, which will feature dancing to Gold plus a four-course meal, are £43 and further details area available from the Town hall on 01394 282086.

What do you think of the skatepark plan? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk