Budget axe falls on Shropshire youth clubs

Hundreds of children and young adults will be affected by the proposals, which will come into effect in April.

Dozens of council-run youth sessions will be axed as Shropshire Council looks to save almost £150,000 from its budget - and it has already warned there will be more cuts next year.

Shropshire Council is planning to cut between 18 and 24 youth club sessions from the 47 it currently runs.

Selected sessions at venues in Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Oswestry, Whitchurch and Market Drayton are among those under threat.

Services in "the areas of highest need" will be saved, while it is hoped volunteers may come forward to help run under-threat sessions.

The authority is making the cuts with around one-third of the county's youth workers taking redundancy.

About 20 staff are leaving the authority, with around 16 being frontline staff. The majority are part-time workers.

The staff reductions are expected to save the cash-strapped authority £140,000 - equivalent to a 15 per cent budget cut.

It is intended that the council will run a reduced service from April 2014 to the end of March 2015.

From April 2015, the council will commission an outside organisation to run the services on its behalf. But the council has warned "further savings will be necessary" next year on top of the cuts being made currently.

A statement from the council said: "Budget pressures on the council have meant a number of youth workers will leave from April 1, 2014 as part of the council's recent voluntary redundancy programme.

"As a result, the council will need to deliver a reduced service from April 1, 2014 and, as a consequence of this, will only be able to operate a maximum number of 28 youth club sessions each week, out of the current 47."

Two public consultations on the proposals are now running - one in relation to the interim service from April and one on the commissioned service due to be introduced next year.

But voluntary sector groups such as the Scouts, Guides and Young Farmers will not be affected.

Councillor Gwilym Butler, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for culture, leisure and libraries, and leading on this, said: "Our proposal to reduce a number of youth club sessions is not one we make lightly. However, we need to ensure that the money and staff that we have are used well in local areas."

The authority's directly-delivered youth sessions typically attract attendances of between 30 and 100 young people per night.

In 2012/13, the council's youth service provided activities for more than 4,000 young people across Shropshire. When voluntary organisations are included, that figure increased to more than 11,000.

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