Councillors to debate Shropshire youth service cuts
Massive cuts to Shropshire's youth service are to be discussed by councillors in two of Shropshire's largest towns next week.
Councillors in Shrewsbury and Oswestry will have their say on Shropshire Council's planned £140,000 cutbacks at separate meetings on Monday evening.
Shropshire Council is aiming to save around £140,000 – equivalent to a 15 per cent budget cut – with around one-third of the county's youth workers taking redundancy from April 1.
About 20 staff are leaving the authority, and as a result selected youth club sessions in Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Oswestry, Whitchurch and Market Drayton are under threat.
The authority's youth sessions typically attract attendances of between 30 and 100 young people.
In 2012/13, the council's youth service provided activities for more than 4,000 young people across Shropshire.
The authority hopes volunteers may come forward to help run under-threat sessions, while services in "the areas of highest need" will be protected.
Voluntary sector groups such as the Scouts, Guides and Young Farmers will not be affected.
It is intended that the council will run a reduced youth service from April to the end of March 2015.
From April 2015, the council will commission an outside organisation to run youth services on its behalf.
But the council has warned "further savings will be necessary" next year on top of the cuts being made currently.
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.
Shrewsbury Town Council will formulate an official response to a consultation on the planned changes at a full meeting on Monday night at the Guildhall from 6pm.
Meanwhile, councillors in Oswestry will be told that many activities provided at The Centre, Oswestry's £2.2 million youth centre which only opened in December 2012, could be lost, although there are no plans for the site, in Oak Street, to close.
Sessions under threat include the Youth Forum, which meets on Tuesdays, junior and senior Thursday night youth clubs and the Friday night Girls Group.
The Centre's weekly skate night could also be axed.
Rural youth clubs, which see a minibus sent to villages to pick up youngsters around Oswestry, are likely to continue, as will The Centre's Friday drop-in session.
Owestry town councillors will discuss the options at their finance and general purposes meeting on Monday night.
The talks start at 7pm at the Guildhall.
