An "ambitious" project to build a new skatepark in Dracaena Avenue Playing Fields is one step closer to fruition.

Falmouth Town Council have given the developer £29,700 to design the skatepark, and they anticipate the final cost will be around £500,000.

Maverick Skateparks, the company who recently built the Concrete Waves park in Newquay, have submitted a planning application to replace Falmouth's old skatepark with a 1632 square metre concrete one.

Speaking to Falmouth Town Council at a meeting in April, director of Maverick Skateparks Russ Holbert said: "It's a statement. It says 'this is what towns like Falmouth should have.' It's ambitious, but why not be ambitious?"

Included in the planning application is a letter from inspector Les Fry from Dorset Police praising the impact of a new Mavericks skatepark that was built in Dorchester in 2009.

He said: "I have to say what a tremendous success this Skate Park has been. We have had none of the anticipated trouble or problems people were expecting. The park has been in almost constant use since it opened and is really popular with a wide range of users. It is now the 'in place' to be or be seen.

"In the past young people would sit or meet in the town centre, as a result we would often get calls of complaint about them. Now they are all at the park either riding bikes, skate boards or just sitting and watching."

Falmouth Town Council will now tender for contractors to build the skatepark, with some of the money coming from section 106 agreements with other developers building elsewhere in Falmouth.

Town clerk Mark Williams said: "It goes hand in hand with what we are trying to do with outdoor gym and children's play area in Dracaena Playing Fields."

The plans can be read in full by searching PA18/08393 on http://planning.cornwall.gov.uk.