|
|
 |
| |
Parents, volunteers and youngsters from the Maiden Lane Community Centre |
Youth club funding axe shock for teens
Centre that helped beat crime loses council backing
PARENTS and teenagers have appealed to the Town Hall after a shock funding cut to a “vital” youth club on the Maiden Lane estate.
Residents say the area around Agar Grove, once a hotbed of crime and youth disorder, has been calmed by the services offered by the Maiden Lane Community Centre.
Last night (Wednesday), they warned the “ludicrous decision” to axe the centre’s funding would spell a return to the police sirens and anti-social behaviour of previous years.
Parent Trisha Sharratt, 52, said: “Everything we’ve built up will be destroyed. I don’t think the council realise the problems it’s going to cause. There’ll be nothing for the kids to do.”
Neighbours are furious they were not consulted over the cuts, due to come into effect at the end of September.
Instead, they found out about the plans when leaflets from Liberal Democrat councillors pledging to save the centre were posted through their doors.
Bizarrely, the Lib Dems are campaigning on the issue even though their party ultimately has the final say what money is spent at the Town Hall.
Jo Shaw, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Holborn and St Pancras, said the blame lay with council officers rather than her colleagues.
“I have no idea whether my colleagues are cross with the officers or not,” she said. “We’ve just talked about the fact that we haven’t got the money. We’re all disappointed, as are the people on Maiden Lane. A big problem is that the money comes from central government, and Camden residents don’t get enough for all of the work which everyone would love to see funded.”
More than 130 youngsters aged 13-19 use the centre, which currently stretches its £35,000-a-year budget to cookery classes, DJ workshops, martial arts, football, IT training, youth work and keep-fit classes.
Neighbour Leroy McLery said: “We’ve broken down the postcode war. Children from all over the area, from the nearby St Pancras, Agar Grove and Elm Village estates, unite and come together here. Nobody (from the council) has come to see the project here – how have they arrived at this decision?”
Estef Malundama, 17, who hopes to study a further course in childcare to build on the skills he learned at the youth club, said: “It started with the football pitch, which they’ve been saying they’re going to fix for 10 years. Now it’s our youth club. What are they going to do next?”
The estate has also been promised a £65,000 grant to resurface the football pitch and a “natural play area” – but they are yet to materialise.
Momota Khatun, a former youth worker at the centre, said: “It’s really ludicrous to pull funding where there’s a need for it. It doesn’t make sense for Camden to do this. If they say they aren’t aware of the problems there used to be on this estate then they are lying.”
A council spokeswoman said: “We only have limited funding in this particular stream. We are meeting with providers to investigate opportunities for future partnership working and support them in bidding for alternative funding.” |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
