SKATEBOARDING youngsters are creating lethal hazards for pedestrians - greasing kerbs to practise stunts.

Dorchester Police are responding to around three calls a day from members of the public who are complaining about skaters causing a nuisance on the streets.

Now PC Craig Daniels has revealed that a dangerous practise is creating a potentially lethal hazard on the pavements. He said: "Skateboarders are using surf wax on the kerbs so that they can do a trick that involves sliding along the kerb.

"This is incredibly dangerous, because people could slip on the wax and end up in the road.

"It may sound like a trivial problem when people complain about skateboarders' behaviour, but we take these complaints extremely seriously - especially since an old lady was knocked over by a skateboarder in the Charles Street car park and banged her head.

We are getting two to three calls a day from people about skaters around the town and we follow those up as quickly as we can."

Peter Noble, whose Dorchester-based company N M Promotions builds skate parks, said: "I've never heard of anybody waxing pavements before - that is an absolutely unacceptable thing to do.

"Besides, in a few days there will be a skate area in Charles Street car park - they are working on it now.

"People should not be doing anything to give themselves a bad name or it will affect people's views of them and it will be that much more difficult to get a skate park for Dorchester.

"People are in the car park at the moment, resurfacing and putting bits and pieces in - don't spoil that."