Stone Town Council will be putting in a bid to take over Stone youth centre when it’s closed by Staffordshire County Council on 31st December.
The decision could see the youth centre being run by the town council from 1st January 2015 and the Frank Jordan Centre handed back to owners Stafford Borough Council (more on why that can happen HERE).
The council’s general purposes committee decided at their meeting on 13th November to put in a bid and a working group of town councillors was established to work on this with town council clerk Les Trigg. Members of the group are Harry Brunt, Cathy Collier, Mike Shaw, June Price, Rob Kenney and Geoff Collier.
The town council’s business plan for the youth centre has to be submitted to the county council by 5th December in a competitive tendering process. The successful organisation that will take over the youth centre on 1st January will be chosen on 15th December.
The youth centre in Stone – along with all others across the county – is set to close at the end of this year after a Staffordshire County Council review into youth service provision. However, it is looking for not-for-profit organisations to run a number of the centres, including Stone.
Town clerk Les Trigg told the meeting that getting the bid completed in such a short timescale was “a very tall order but we’re going to have to achieve it”. In his report to the committee meeting, he wrote: “The process being proposed by the county council is an onerous one, given the short timescales. Despite requests for information regularly over a period of many months, nothing has been forthcoming from the county council until the current documents were made available on 31 October.”
Members of the committee were determined to press ahead and submit a bid. Cllr Joyce Farnham told the meeting: “There should be no ifs, buts, can we’s or should we’s. We have to go for it,” with Cllr June Price adding: “We owe it to the people of Stone to make a bid for the youth centre.”
Questions were raised by Cllrs Rob Kenney and Jill Hood about how the town council could afford to take on the youth centre. According to county council figures, the youth centre has annual running costs of £22,000, with lettings income in 2013/14 of around £13,000.
The council’s bid will have to clearly set out its vision for the youth centre and what activities could be delivered there, as well as what income can be generated to make the centre sustainable as a town council operation.
Cllr Philip Jones, committee chairman, read out an email from the business manager of St Dominic’s Priory School, which stated that the school would support a town council bid.
As well as youth service activities, the youth centre is currently used by Staffordshire Ventures, which works with adults with learning disabilities, and the 4-14 Out of School Club. Rob Plant from Staffordshire Ventures welcomed the decision from the town council to make a bid. He said after the meeting: “This is really welcome news. We’ve been at the centre for three years now and we want to stay. It’s a brilliant facility.”
A private meeting was being held at the youth centre on 14th November for organisations that had submitted an interest in making a bid.
Related Posts:
1 comment