Youth centres across the Bath & North East Somerset area are at risk of closure following the halving of their £1 million budget, in a bid to substantially save money at B&NES Council.
The Peasedown Youth Hub could be transferred to the community
At a meeting on Tuesday 20th March, plans to sell Youth Connect hubs across the area were discussed, and it was revealed that senior managers at B&NES Council were ‘broadly supportive’ of the idea.
The Youth Connect services at risk are the Riverside Youth Hub on the London Road in Bath, Peasedown St John Youth Hub and the mobile service run in the Chew Valley and Radstock.
The Southside hub would remain open, following expressions of interest from a small number of organisations including the Youth Connect service themselves, for them to use the site as their base.
The Youth Connect Services in B&NES currently deliver targeted youth engagement across the area from three buildings. It also runs a mobile service in the Chew Valley and Radstock. The youth service is focused on prevention and early intervention.
In January 2017, B&NES Council reduced the budget of the service by £500k. This equated to a 50% reduction in funding, with savings needing to be taken by September 2018.
At the meeting on Tuesday, it was revealed that the land on which the Riverside Youth Hub is located has been valued at £3 million. The Council’s officers are investigating whether there’s scope for any subsequent development at the site to incorporate some kind of youth centre.
The Council is not proposing to sell off the Peasedown St John Youth Hub, but is instead seeking to reach an agreement with a local partnership including the school, church and Parish Council about shared usage of the facility under a possible community asset transfer.
If an agreement isn’t reached, the closure of the hub would mean the school in the village would have to build its own facilities, as it currently uses the site for their sports hall.
There is the possibility that the Youth Connect service could be commercially-driven in the future, which could lead to future growth.
A financial due diligence report will now be compiled, and the decision on the future of the hubs and the commercial aspect of the service is expected soon.
1 Comment
AJH
Thursday 22nd March, 2018 at 11:46The sale of the Peasedown Hub would have an even greater impact due to the poor decisions made by the council on granting permission to Curo to build 89 homes in the village. The school is already at capacity and the GP is also over capacity. There needs to be better community level decision making to ensure that amenities and support structures such as schools and GPS are provided with funds from the sales of these additional properties to enable growth. OR Curo and other developers should have the provision of additional facilities such as this built into their plans and pay for it.