COUNCIL chiefs in Worcestershire are about to u-turn on proposals to scrap a £1 million budget for young people after a public outcry.

Worcestershire County Council is set to abandon its aim of axing a key fund which helps deliver youth activities to more than 10,000 youngsters a year.

As your Worcester News revealed last year, the cash-strapped authority has drawn up plans to end its 'Positive Young People' fund in April 2016 in a drive to save money.

The council had hoped the likes of schools, the police and volunteers could help plug the gap.

But after serious concerns about the implications the Conservative leadership has found the money to keep the fund running until 2019 - albeit with less money.

From April, the £1 million kitty will reduce to £600,000, then fall to £500,000 in 2017 and £400,00 in 2018/19.

The current fund helps 19 different organisations across Worcestershire run a raft of services like soccer camps, youth clubs and open up community centres.

There are 23 contracts currently being run from the money which expire next March, and they will be put out for tender and re-negotiated again.

A report on the move reveals how police had concerns about it ending, saying levels of "reported anti-social behaviour" are lower in areas where the fund is used.

One in four of the organisations currently getting some cash were worried about going under, while 42 per cent of them said they'd be "likely to stop offering positive activities for young people".

The Conservative cabinet is taking a vote on it next Thursday following a detailed review including interviews with 700 young people.

Councillor John Campion, the cabinet member for children and families, said: "Following the review we listened to the views of our young people, providers and the scrutiny panel and recognise the value these activities have in improving outcomes.

"This decision needs to be balanced with the financial climate - so I'm recommending a continued investment but on a sliding scale to create capacity for providers to become sustainable."

The previous proposal to end the fund was bitterly opposed by opposition councillors.

Lib Dem group leader Councillor Liz Tucker chairs a trust which manages Pershore's Riverside Youth Centre.

She said: "The needs of young people should be recognised the same as older people because they are the future.

"I feel passionately about the council keeping up youth work but they've abandoned the responsibility for it.

"We are grateful because something is better than nothing, but there's still a problem in that nobody wants to be responsible for core funding for employing people."

After the 2018/19 financial year the £400,000 will be placed under review, but the hope is that service providers will become less reliant on direct funding from County Hall by then.