Youngsters celebrate first step to saving Bridgnorth youth club

Residents in Bridgnorth have stressed the importance of keeping an open access youth club on Innage Lane after the town council said it would try and find an organisation to operate the provision at its council meeting last week.

Shropshire Council is withdrawing funding for youth groups across the county at the end of March and is asking town and parish council to fund them.

As well as the approved motion to Bridgnorth Town Council to look for an operating body, Councillor Julia Buckley also proposed that £15,000 be set aside for one year only to help fund the youth club, which will be discussed at an extraordinary council meeting on Wednesday.

Following the council's decision to look for a youth club operator, Councillor Buckley, who represents East ward, said: "This is an excellent result for the young people of Bridgnorth – to know that they are valued and supported and will be cared for in the year ahead, no matter what else comes our way."

Scores of people have since come forward with their stories of support for a youth club to remain on Innage Lane.

One resident said her 12-year-old daughter was "very disappointed" at the potential closure.

She said: "My daughter has anxiety. The youth club enables her to have safe communication and social time with her friends, where she can be herself in the knowledge that she won’t be bullied or picked on by people who do not know her situation.

"It is a place which has now become a very important social space to make new friends and feel she can do safely.

"She was beaten up a couple of months ago on the park by two girls as there is no supervision and nobody to stop that from happening.

"Supervised fun where she feels safe is a huge part of her being able to leave her house.

"Closing the youth club would be a true travesty to the community and the children who do and will use it in the future."

Bridgnorth resident Charlotte Round, who is studying a masters degree in Social Work, spoke at the council meeting and said: "I’m aware that for Bridgnorth Town Council to fund the youth club it would involve raising council tax – I’m also aware that would amount to literal pennies per month for residents of Bridgnorth.

"Do you think that the residents of Bridgnorth would really oppose paying pennies more per month to keep these vital services open?

"Prevention and early help has been proven time and time again to not only be beneficial to children/young people and their families, but also save local authorities more in the long term. Not only that but we have a moral responsibility to safeguard these children.”

Arlie Chetter, 18, attended the town council meeting to discuss the future of youth provision.

Following the meeting, Arlie said: "One councillor said during discussions that the public pressure to save the provision was based on nostalgia, which as a person of only 18 I find unfitting, while another stated that one reason not to save the provision was to prevent receiving blame if the service were then closed in the future.

"Is it really for our councillors to dismiss the views of us, the electorate, just to cover their own backs?”

At its upcoming extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, Bridgnorth Town Council is set to speak further on youth provision and discuss if funding could be set aside to help operate it next year.