Young people who use the skate park at Hove Lagoon are fed up with being branded antisocial and a nuisance by residents.

Now they are fighting back with a film they have made about themselves which aims to show they are not troublemakers. Ruth Lumbley reports.

When Norman Cook withdrew his support for the Hove Lagoon skate park amid complaints from his neighbours that it was attracting yobs, youth workers were dismayed.

The DJ, aka Fatboy Slim, who lives close to the park with his wife Zoe Ball, gave £12,000 towards the venture.

But he asked for the money to go to children's play equipment instead after other residents complained to him the place was attracting antisocial behaviour, including drinking and drug-taking.

The skate park opened in April and was built by Skate Expectations with funding from businesses, including £65,000 from Barclays and £50,000 from Biffa waste services.

Since then police have been called to incidents there involving drinking and drugs.

In May, Norman Cook told The Argus he had become disillusioned with the project after hearing the residents' worries.

Outreach worker Graeme Reece said at the time the DJ should be taking positive action instead of pulling his support.

Now the Youth and Connexions Service, part of the Children and Young People's Trust, has helped the teenagers who use the park to change public opinion themselves.

The aim was to make a film showing what brought them together at the park was simply a love of skating.

The youth service takes its advice bus to the skate park every Thursday. It started the ball rolling by asking the skaters if they wanted to make a film to show what they were really like.

Youth worker Sean Allen said: "The area had been identified by police community support officers as a place where young people were gathering and they said it might be of benefit to them if we went down there to offer help and advice.

"There had been a lot of people saying the skaters were causing trouble but all we were seeing was positive stuff so we decided to do something about it."

The youth service was given funding by Brighton and Hove City Council to employ media arts organisation Lighthouse, which provided camera equipment. It also employed Mark Raeburn, director of Redcurrent Films, to show the youngsters how to use the equipment.

Hannah Driscoll, 17, from Portslade, got behind the camera with her friend Carly McKenna to help make the ten-minute film.

She said: "We just started talking to the youth workers because we are regulars down here and we got involved in the project.

"We did it all - the cameras, the sound, the interviews - and it was really great. I did not think it was going to be as good as it was.

"I like the way we got to interact with the public and I did not think I would be so confident.

"We spoke to people who were at the skate park and people who live across the road and not one single person had a bad thing to say about the skate park.

"Most people said they had not seen any trouble."

Carly, also 17 and from Portslade, said: "I liked the communication there was between people and the fact that we got to work as a team. I also liked having a camera in my hand. It made me feel important and getting everyone's views and finding out what they thought about us was really interesting.

"I would not have thought about film making before this but now I would quite like to study something like media.

"When I first saw the negative comments in The Argus I thought people were just stereotyping us because I have not seen anyone doing anything bad in the skate park.

"If the residents perhaps saw one person shouting their head off they just assumed all of us were doing it.

"They see a big group of people and they think it is an area for fights and drinking and that there is going to be graffiti everywhere but it is nothing like that.

"Everyone here gets on well and everyone is very welcoming.

It is a really nice atmosphere which is calm, comfortable and chilled out.

"When we first came down here we hardly knew anybody but now we know everyone because they are all so friendly.

"I prefer to come down here than to go to a normal park where people are drinking and being quite menacing."

The film was made over six Thursday evenings and edited by Mr Raeburn. It features skaters, the views of residents and people using the skate park. Lighthouse also invited The Argus features editor Jakki Phillips to contribute.

Toby Walters, 15, from Portslade, has been skating for six months and is interviewed in the film.

He said: "I didn't skate before this park opened but when I saw they were doing the film I wanted to put the message out to people that it is not bad down here and I have not seen anyone behaving badly. You get the odd person drinking but it doesn't mean the rest of us are."

His friend Alex Jackson, 18, from Hangleton, said: "I have been skating for six years and before the skate park was built I used to use the strip by the West Pier.

"When I heard there had been negative comments about us I thought it was inevitable because every other skate park gets bad press.

"I hope the film changes people's minds about us but if they already have their opinions it can be quite hard."

The young people were impressed with the finished video.

They will each receive a copy of it and the youth service will use it show other teenagers that they can get involved in something similar.

The film is being posted on the internet by Redcurrent Films.

Fin Casey Knight, 18, from Brighton, said: "I think making the film has been a good thing.

"It is good for the community to see that we are actually real people and not monsters."

Watch the film about Hove Lagoon skate park here.