Months of argument come to a head this week, with a decision due to be made over whether to build a controversial skate park in Oxford.

On Wednesday, Oxford city councillors are set to decide once-and-for-all whether the Oxford Wheels Project are allowed to build the facility in Cowley Marsh park.

The project is recommended for approval, despite not being supported by the council's Cowley area committee.

Jack Richens, 28, executive officer of the Wheels project, said: "If the councillors base their decision on the facts and a view to promoting council policies, then I would hope for a positive outcome.

"We have all got our fingers crossed, and we are hoping something good is going to come of this."

It is the last throw of the dice for the skateboarders, who have been seeking a permanent home in the city for 20 years.

Currently based in Meadow Lane, the group has been forced to rip apart ramps they first built by hand more than a decade ago, but which have now come to the end of their life.

The only remaining ramp is not expected to last beyond the end of the summer.

Mon Barber, 39, who runs Cowley Road skateboarding shop SS20, and has been involved in the project since its inception, said he was not hopeful the council would give the scheme the go-ahead.

He said: "The people who would suffer without it are youngsters - those who cause trouble because they have nothing else to do.

"This would give hundreds of youngsters a focal point to actually practise their sport, and engage in a social network and healthy activity, keeping them out of trouble."

The council received more than 120 letters in support of the proposals and around 28 against, along with petitions from both sides of the debate.

More representations are expected to have been received by the time the application is considered.

Among those opposed to the application is Charo Bajo, whose home in Crescent Road backs on to Cowley Marsh.

She said: "Hopefully the application will be refused.

"It would involve a loss of open space, there is a flood risk, and the protection levels for noise disturbance are not adequate.

"It would also increase traffic."

She added: "We are not against the skate park - and it is nothing to do with young people.

"It is simply not in the right location."