PETERSFIELD skate park on Love Lane playing fields is set to host a reopening Skate Jam after being modernised and enlarged at a cost of more than £200,000.

The unveiling of the new skate park layout on Saturday, July 30, comes after years of fundraising by the Petersfield charity, the Festival of Young People.

The charity secured £218,000 for the extension last August after Aspire Pharma of Rotherbrook Court in Bedford Road stepped in to foot the bill.

Petersfield Town Council owns the playing fields and is overseeing the extension project and promoting the Skate Jam.

As well as the reopening, it will feature music, refreshments, and skate merchandise retailers – and freebies!

A council spokesman said: “The extension to the skate park will provide facilities for younger people and those who use wheelchairs.”

The Festival of Young People was founded in the 2008 and run by retired Petersfield trio Nigel Wells, Roger Parkes and Daphne Clark.

They raised about £150,000 to build the first phase of the skate park on the Petersfield Town Council-owned Love Lane playing fields, and it opened in 2010.

After spending years struggling to raise the cash for phase two of the skate park, the charity was on the verge of folding when Aspire Pharma offered to fund it.