error on starting server

Hi thanks for your previous replies, I decided to remove the RH embedded
postgresql and install from source
which I have done and as far as I can tell everything is ok but when I
tried to start it I got the following...

[bob@localhost bob]$ /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
The files belonging to this database system will be owned by user "bob".
This user must also own the server process.

The database cluster will be initialized with locale en_NZ.UTF-8.

creating directory /usr/local/pgsql/data... mkdir: cannot create
directory `/usr/local/pgsql/data': Permission denied

initdb: failed
[bob@localhost bob]$

any help appreciated.

version is postgresql-7.4.2

Bob