Dorchester youngsters have united to appeal for support after months of hard work campaigning for a skatepark.

And town councillors voted an overwhelming 'yes' to give the young people their backing.

Members of Dorchester's Youth Extra group have been pounding the streets for months to get views on a possible skatepark in the town.

They had to win the support of councillors to forge ahead with their project because they were too young to secure the necessary authority for such a scheme to attract grant funding.

Last night they presented their findings to a meeting of the town council to try and get their backing to win grant cash of up to £66,000 to get a skatepark built.

Councillors praised the group, who had carried out a detailed survey on their dream of having a purpose-built place to practise their sport and had costed out various options for the project.

They had even come up with possible sites for the skatepark, including the redundant filling station next to the youth centre on Kings Road and Charles Street car park, where many of them skate now.

Another suggestion was a site at Poundbury, but one of the most popular ideas was to expand on the existing skate-ramp at Maiden Castle.

Keen skater Paddy Aldridge, 14, from Manor Park, told the meeting: "Comments were made about the positioning of the site, such as; 'it should be Charles Street car park as there are already loads of skaters there', and 'it is best to be close to the town centre'."

Emily Tweed, 16, from Compton Valence, said: "There were a range of facilities people wanted to see at the site, such as toilets and first aid - it's a long way to go to a phone if there's an accident at the Maiden Castle site."

Coun Robin Potter said: "Twenty years ago I thought skate boarding was just a fad, but now, if you go anywhere about the town, it's impossible not to see people using skateboards - there are huge numbers of people who would use the facilities if they were available."

Coun Wally Gundry said: "It's so good to see young people trying to do something for themselves and coming here to help us old crinklies make sense of it all."