ATHLETIC skateboarders in Lymington are giving a headache to a handful of residents - and the town council.

Fed up with the bash and crash of landing skateboards the unhappy residents got environmental health officers on their side.

Now the town council has received a noise abatement notice relating to the skatepark.

People living in Ridgeway Lane and Rookes Lane have long campaigned about bad behaviour, foul language and noise from the skatepark in Woodside Park.

Since the £35,000 skatepark was completed in 2001, the town council has spent £25,000 on soundproofing, fencing and CCTV.

Skating has also been restricted from 10am to 4pm in the off-season and until 8.30pm from April to October.

Most people have been mollified but there are still a few complainants left.

On May 10 New Forest District Council delivered the noise abatement notice to town council clerk Ray Jones alleging a statutory nuisance.

An appeal is to be lodged and acoustics experts at Southampton University are to be contacted.

Mr Jones later said there had been a noise abatement notice served on the council last November. It was withdrawn when the fencing was erected around the skatepark.

Most people are now happy with the arrangement.

"We've even had people who originally opposed it saying what a good thing it is," he said.

"There are just a very, very few who have dug their heels in right from the start and it's a matter of pride with them."

A district council spokesman said environmental health officers and the town council would work closely to overcome the problem.

Town and district councillor Martina Humber has been closely involved with the project, partly paid for by the district council.

"We've tried to stop the sound but it's down to two or three people," she said.

"I think we've got to be much more tolerant of young people because they're our future.

"Most of them are decent kids. There are some who are a pain. But they don't drink and they don't take drugs because they've got to be fit to do those super things."

Mr Jones said it was not known who the complainants are "because the district council will not tell us".