A MALVERN resident says she is so concerned for the safety of youngsters skating and riding bikes in the streets, that she has started a campaign to provide an indoor leisure facility.

Della Appleby, of Leigh Sinton Road, fears youngsters on boards, blades and bikes are endangering their own lives and those of others.

She had asked some young skateboarders why they used the roads.

"They said that the ramp in Victoria Park wasn't big enough and they were frightened to use it as they feared they would be bullied."

She is now asking people to join her in lobbying Malvern Hills District Council for a safe place for young people and ideally an undercover complex and she has distributed posters around town appealing for people to support her suggestion.

Jenny Lawrence, community safety officer for Malvern Hills District Council, said: "We're obviously sympathetic to what she is saying but it's a question of finance and finding the right location for such a project."

Another resident, Gary Holloway of Albert Park Garage, also feels an accident is imminent because new traffic-calming ramps in Malvern Link are doubling as stunt ramps.

He said he almost hit a group of skateboarders using ramps, while driving on Somers Park Avenue last Friday.

"If nothing is done to stop them, it's only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured," he said.

His idea to put a stop to street skating would be to insert grooves in the ramps to make it impossible for small wheels to pass over them.

Terry Baldock, of Worcestershire County Council's sustainable transport department, said the council did not consider it a problem.

"If we did put groves in the ramps the skaters could damage themselves. There's nothing we can do about the skateboarders as it's not illegal for them to skate on the road," he said.