CONCERNS have been raised that Galashiels’ skate park is “really dangerous”.

The matter was discussed at a meeting of the town’s community council last week.

Scottish Borders Council leader Euan Jardine, of the Conservatives, said that he recently visited the facility.

But the Galashiels councillor was unimpressed with what he saw, with tree debris on the ramps and metal components missing.

“I went down there and I was actually quite shocked,” he said.

Mr Jardine told the meeting that a young skater from the town had recently been sponsored but had to go to Edinburgh in search of better facilities.

“For a town the size of Galashiels, we should be encouraging these young kids to get into alternative sports,” he said.

“I think we’re letting down our young people.”

The council leader said he was “pushing for an investment programme” to improve the situation.

Planning applications for two new skate parks in the Borders have been filed with the local authority this year – one in Jedburgh and one in Peebles.

The plans for the £270,000 Jedburgh facility have been more than a decade in the making.

The hybrid concrete skate park and tarmac pump track in the town is earmarked for an area known locally as ‘The Dip’, on the south side of the A68.

Meanwhile, the Peebles project would see the floodlit facility built in Victoria Park.