THE mother of a nine-year-old Watchet boy who suffered a serious leg injury while playing on a skateboard ramp is calling for urgent action to make play equipment safe at the town’s Henry Davey Playing Field.

Nine-year-old Cameron Stevens underwent a three-hour operation at Bristol children’s hospital last Tuesday to treat a deep cut on his shin.

He had fallen down the back of the metal ramp and on to what his parents claim was the rough and rusty edge of the structure.

The park is run by Watchet Town Council which said in a statement this week that an independent inspector had checked the ramp in January and again after the incident and “no compliance failure had been found”.

A spokesman added: “The council are deeply saddened by the injury [the boy] sustained and wish him a speedy recovery.”

But Cameron’s father, Kris Stevens, said: “If the ramp hadn’t had a sharp edge, Cameron could have been bruised or even broken a bone, but he wouldn’t have been scarred for life.”

Cameron’s mother, Nicola, said her main concern now was that other youngsters would not come to grief on the ramp and is calling for the owners, Watchet Town Council, to maintain and repair the equipment.

“Cameron’s injury is bad enough but it could have been a lot worse and for the next child perhaps it will be,” she said.

Cameron, who lives at nearby Courtlands Place, was playing with friends at the park last Saturday: “I was standing on the platform at the top of the ramp waiting for my turn with a scooter,” he said.

“There are no railings at the top of the ramp. I stepped backwards and fell on to the metal which is on the edge of the ramp. My leg was bleeding a lot and was very painful.

“A friend of my mum’s wrapped up my leg in her T-shirt and an ambulance took me to hospital”

During the operation in Bristol, skin was grafted onto the wound from his hip. Doctors said he will probably need further surgery when he is older to lessen the scarring.

Cameron has been told it will take at least ten weeks for him to fully recover – which means missing the rest of the season playing in midfield for Watchet Mariners under-tens football team,

“He’s been much braver than I would have been,” Nicola said. “It has been a pretty horrible week for all of us.”