THEY may be fed up to the back teeth of the problems caused by skateboarders all over the village, but the latest development in the skate park story will stick in the throats of many people in Addingham.

The handing over of the cash needed to buy state-of-the-art skating equipment is in danger of being seen as a reward for bad behaviour. There is a feeling that because they have been causing a nuisance everywhere and upsetting people, the skateboarders have got exactly what they wanted.

Of course it's not as simple as that. There is a pressing need everywhere for facilities for youngsters and if charity money is not there to provide such things, what is it there for?

Skateboarding is not a traditional English pastime but in recent years it has grown in popularity with the result that most villages are more likely to have a skate park than a maypole. If the youngsters can be tempted to behave more responsibly by having a skate park with equipment then not a penny will have been wasted.

The skateboarders now have a chance to redeem themselves while arrangements for handing over the cash and getting the equipment installed are taking place.

And if the parish council is successful in enacting a by-law then the problem will be solved in the long-term. The skateboarders can count themselves lucky. The by-law preventing them skating around the village could have been all they got.

But the Trustees of the Addingham Millennium fund have not been narrow minded and negative about the way forward. Whether the youngsters are deemed to have deserved help or not isn't really the point.