A PROJECT that hopes to introduce more young people to skateboarding in Malmesbury has got underway and is appealing to local businesses for support.

After receiving £700 in funding from the Malmesbury Area Board, the Malmesbury Skate Park Group (MSPG) have started work on painting hundreds of skateboards, to be displayed around the town in a hope to raise awareness for the work they do.

Matt Wigley is chairman of the MSPG and was part of the team that got the group its charitable status after 10 years of campaigning.

Speaking about the project, Matt said: “It’s a way of getting children into art and showing them they can do something creative and end up with something at the end of it.

“It doesn’t matter if they get a couple wrong, it’s about making something they can be proud of.

“People will be quite proud to see the boards hung in the town hall when they’re finished.”

The group hope to hang the decorate boards in the windows of the town’s businesses, lifting the profile of the work the MSPG do and encouraging more children to get involved.

“Skateboarding has always been well-supported in Malmesbury but so many parents say they didn’t know the town had a skatepark,” said Matt .

“We hope to have them hanging around town with a little card telling people about what we do.”

Matt, along with a team of volunteers, gives up his time to run the MSPG.

He booked two days off work last week to sand down the boards and host the creative sessions for youngsters at the soon-to-be-renovated Riverside Centre in Malmesbury.

When youth service was cut in Wiltshire it could have spelled the end of the skatepark that Matt and his team had worked hard to secure.

But Adam set up the MSPG to keep the skatepark alive and hopes the new scheme will help them reach out to more youngsters in the town.

“There was a danger nothing would happen in town,” said Matt .

“So rather than sit around and grumble about it, we can take a day off work and do something for young people.”

The group are now appealing to local businesses to hang the decorated boards in their window.

For more information on how to support the MSPG, visit facebook.com/MSLA.13 or call 01666 823747.