MORE than 150 young people have signed a petition asking for more equipment to be installed at a skateboard park.

Arry West, 15 from St John's school, Epping approached the town council to ask for their support to update the park at Stonards Hill.

He said: "All I'm trying to do is get the skate park up graded and for that I had to have some help. I filled in an application form and gave it to the council, and I had to do it four times before they accepted it.

"We want more equipment and flood lights so we can still use it when it gets dark early. It's too small at the moment because people come from all over to use it, as far away as South Woodford. I asked everyone who uses the park to sign a petition."

But councillors were concerned about backing their plight because people living nearby had complained of too much noise.

Caroline Brammer, 34 lives opposite Stonards Hill and said: "There is a massive rubbish problem there with loads of drink bottles left. It looks like a rubbish tip and I don't know if we should be encouraging more people to use it."

David Blair, 47 also lives opposite the park and said: "We are continuously contacting the police. There's a lot of noise and there were four bin bags of rubbish recently.

"We ring the police and they will send someone around but then they come back within half an hour so we have to call again. No one seems to be doing anything."

Rhys Brown, 15 from Epping said it is not the skaters causing trouble.

He added: "We get annoyed too with the people who come along and smash glass and destroy the ramps. All we want is better equipment. It gives us something to do and it's better than hanging around on the streets."

Finnlay Davis, 11 from Epping said: "There are lots of puddles at the moment where the water collects and the floor isn't good, it hurts when you fall."

Councillor Huge Pegrum was keen to support the campaign and said: "If there's funding available then it's something we should carry forward."

Arry and his friends now need to find around £28,000 to fund the project and are hoping the town council will help them.

Arry said: "We've got a meeting arranged with the council and we are hoping to move things forward from there."