Youth club loses its home yet again (From Worcester News)

Youth club loses its home yet again

5:10pm Wednesday 24th October 2012 in News By Elizabeth Sweetman, @lizsweetmanWN #worcsnews

A DROITWICH youth club has been forced to leave its home for the second time in a matter of months.

Spa Youth Zone moved to the Royal British Legion in April because its previous base in the town centre was proving unsustainable.

But Wychavon District Council did not know at the time that the legion was in financial trouble.

At the time it was hoped the move to the legion in Salwarpe Road would secure the service’s long- term future but over the summer the council was told about the club’s financial difficulties.

It decided to wait and see what happened to the venue in the long term before deciding what to do.

Unfortunately, the financial trouble was so severe for the legion that the entire committee decided to resign in August.

The new owners, Cannon Royal Brewery, will now be running the premises as a pub rather than a charitable organisation.

The council must therefore stop sessions because the venue will no longer be able to accommodate a youth facility, as it will no longer have the right kind of insurance.

Rob Mace, youth zone co-ordinator at Wychavon, said: “It’s a real shame that the zone will be forced to stop its sessions following the demise of the legion.

“We really wish they had been up front with us regarding their financial standing, so that we could have taken this into consideration before we decided to move, but there is a silver lining.”

Provision for the young people of the town will continue though a newly formed collective called DAFFY (Droitwich Action For Future Youth), which has started its own youth groups at the Heritage Centre on Mondays and Thursdays.

At a later stage, it will also run arts sessions on a Saturday. Youth facilities will continue at Westlands and DAFFY will run a service from the youth house on a Tuesday and Friday.

Mr Mace said the youth bus would now step up its work in the town.

Wychavon’s youth bus has steadily expanded its provision over the last three years and has already run 80 sessions with more than 700 young people benefiting from the service this year.

Equipment bought for the zone will be passed on to the Wychavon youth bus.

The Spa Youth Zone opened in the High Street in 2009.