THE end of the road is in sight for a group which has been campaigning to bring a permanent skate park to Oxford for more than a decade.

A report on plans for a new, purpose-built facility on Cowley Marsh Park is due to be discussed next week - and the scheme is recommended for approval.

Oxford Wheels Project chief executive Jack Richens, 28, of Cowley, said: "I was pleasantly surprised to see it had been recommended for approval.

"From the petition that we took around the area, it was looking like a huge amount of people were in favour, so we are very pleased."

Plans for the skate park have attracted a considerable amount of controversy - with, at one point, opposing petitions circulating the Cowley Marsh area.

Concerns had been raised about problems with noise and members of Oxford City Council's Cowley area committee said they did not believe a public park was the right place for such a facility.

But just five people wrote in to object to the plans - with more than 80 registering their support.

Mr Richens said: "The facility has to go ahead.

"There is very little for teenagers to do in Oxford and practically nothing you can do for free.

"To provide something that is free and open to the public is enormously important.

"Initially some of the residents in Meadow Lane, where we have had a temporary site for the last 10 years, had some fears that more young people coming to the area could cause more problems and we have proved those fears wrong.

"The influx of young people brought a real sense of community to the area and now people in Meadow Lane are really sorry to see us go."

Since the scheme was first mooted, a children's play park has been built on part of the site where the Wheels Project had planned to locate their skate park, so the size and scale has had to be reduced.

Mon Barber, 39, from Littlemore, who is a member of Wheels, runs the skate shop SS20 in Cowley Road and began his campaign for a permanent skate park in the city 20 years ago. He believes the new site would be oversubscribed.

He said: "It is still a drop in the ocean - what the Wheels Project can provide at that site now is good, but it's not good enough for a city of our size and scale and the amount of truly great skaters here.

"I have been knocked back for 20 years and we have battled through thick and thin against attitudes of councillors.

"I am ecstatic for the Wheels Project and for the local youngsters that they might actually get a facility - but it should be much bigger and better."

The Cowley area committee will comment on the proposal at their meeting on Wednesday.

A final decision will be taken by the council's strategic development control committee on Wednesday, April 30.