THE honesty of drivers parking in a North Yorkshire market place is paying for a town's first skateboard park.

It is now almost a year since the parish council at Masham, near Ripon, introduced honesty box parking, suggesting a daily donation of only 50p.

Such has been its success that £7,000 has already been put aside for the skateboard facility and work is expected to start shortly.

Parish council chairman Councillor John Ellis said, not only had some drivers paid 50p, others had reckoned it such a bargain that they put in double the amount - and a few paid even more.

Initially, it had been planned to empty the box once a week. Now it is emptied regularly to avoid theft.

Work on the skateboard park, alongside the tennis courts at the recreation ground, is about to start.

Helping to spearhead the project is parish councillor and local builder Colin Barker.

With others, he has volunteered free labour to lay the concrete base and erect the equipment.

Councillor Ellis said: "We have wanted to provide this facility for some time.

"At the moment, the youngsters skateboard on footpaths, to the annoyance of some residents, or use their boards at industrial sites and the Market Place."