NEW leisure facilities at Portishead Lake Grounds must be a top priority for all ages to enjoy. The whole area of the Lake Grounds, including Battery Point, the swimming pool, the lake and the former pitch and

NEW leisure facilities at Portishead Lake Grounds must be a top priority for all ages to enjoy.

The whole area of the Lake Grounds, including Battery Point, the swimming pool, the lake and the former pitch and putt course must be improved to include some modern facilities such as skateboard and roller skate ramps, cycle tracks and a swimming pool suitable for year round use.

The lake facilities need to be updated, and would benefit from having rowing and paddle boats.

The area attracted many thousands of tourists in the 1930s, who came to Portishead by coach, bus and train, to enjoy the beautiful grounds and its facilities. The population of Portishead then was only some 5,000. Now we have a reported 22,000. Questions will no doubt be asked over the cost of such modernisation. Money is available from Section 106 for this very purpose, along with funding from our European partners who have updated all their tourist areas with European funds.

The Lake Grounds have been a leisure area for decades so NIMBY's must now be ignored. Contractors are looking for work, so now is the opportunity to begin an improvement project.

Councillors must listen to public opinion and teenagers should begin a campaign to get these improvements underway.

There will not be any headway made unless we all press our representatives for action now.

ALAN STONE STREET - Avon Way, Portishead