The committee and 17 youngsters, last week held a meeting with Angus Council to discuss the suitability of the site on Traill Drive and, following lengthy discussions, it was agreed that the Ashie would have to do if a skate park was going to be built in the town.

The news comes nearly four months after Angus Council stopped the project going ahead at the previously agreed site of Marine Avenue.

A planning application is now set to be submitted by Angus Council on the committee's behalf and it will be considered by the Scottish Government in due course.

It was also revealed that lottery funding earlier secured by the committee will be carried over to the Ashie site.

The agreement on a location for the wheeled sports facility could mark the beginning of the end for the lengthy campaign to have one built in Montrose.

Seven years ago, a group of dedicated youngsters and wheeled sports enthusiasts embarked on a campaign to have such a skate park built in the town, tirelessly organising skate jams and other events to raise some £26,000 for the project.

They group also received lottery backing to the tune of £24,000, a pledge of £25,000 from the Montrose Common Good Fund and a £1,000 donation from the Montrose Round Table.

And it looked as if the project was set to go ahead this summer after the Scottish Government last year approved a planning application for a site in Marine Avenue.

But that was scuppered at the last minute by Angus Council, who in February this year voted not to put the project out to tender, reacting to a handful of objections from residents of William Rodger Drive – some 160 metres from the site – and erroneous claims that NHS Tayside had plans for the site.

The skate park committee said at the time that they felt they had been betrayed by the council, and threatened to withhold the money they gathered for the project until they had assurances that it would go ahead, but it seems that an agreement has now been reached.

A joint statement from Montrose Alliance councillors Mark Salmond and David May – whom the skate park committee partly blame for the council's refusal to go ahead with the Marine Avenue site – said: "Montrose Alliance councillors, Mark Salmond and David May, who are committed to assist in the building of a skate park for the young people in Montrose, welcome the news of the progress that is being made.

"The two Montrose councillors are delighted to hear that the Montrose skate park committee unanimously agreed to work together with Angus Council to deliver a skate park on the Ashie car park site and the council will now progress a planning application for the site."

Local SNP councillor Sandy West said: "At the end of the day I want to see a skate park for the youngsters. We're all aware of the effort they've put in to it.

"But it's still got to go through planning – what if there are objections to that? If everyone in the town was for it then no problem and it might just get rubber stamped.

"If there are objectors, that's a different story."