A popular skate park that has been open for 15 years has been forced to close after 'mindless vandals' set repeated fires and damaged equipment.
Bury Council have announced that the Clarence Park skate park will be shut until further notice after it was left in a 'state of disrepair'.
Coun Alan Quinn said the problems had been caused by groups of people who would regularly set fire to the wooden sections of the equipment as well as causing other damage and acting threateningly to people who passed by.
He said repairs to the park and work to improve the equipment in order to avoid future damage would likely have cost tens of thousands of pounds.
"These idiots have set fires on the tarmac and the skate ramps," he said. "The have vandalised the park, pulled metal panels off and ripped it apart numerous times.
"It's a secluded area that's difficult to see but at the end of the day it's just mindless vandalism.
"It's such a shame because the skate park has been there for a while, it's really well put together and engineered, and Clarence Park is a wonderful park.
"But it would cost a lot of money to put things right, we could replace the wooden sections with concrete but even then there could be problems."
The skate park has now been fenced off and nobody is allowed to enter.
In the coming weeks a survey will be carried out to give local residents the opportunity to tell the council what they want from Clarence Park.
This will inform the future of the skate park.
