Ludlow's youth services facing the axe
A Shropshire town's youth services may grind to a halt from September as no-one has come forward to run them.
Urgent talks are taking place to find a solution to the problem, which has come about after Shropshire Council laid off youth workers who ran clubs at Ludlow's Youth Centre this summer.
Youth club nights were expected to start running again after the summer break, but despite local authorities tendering for someone to run the sessions, no-one has come forward.
Councillor Andy Boddington, chairman of Ludlow and Clee area local joint committee (LJC) which put out the tender, said: "If nothing happens in a couple of weeks, youth services will stop in Ludlow."
He said at an urgent meeting of LJC members today they had given Shropshire Council officers 48 hours to come up with a workable solution to the problem.
Ludlow East councillor Tracey Huffer said: "We can't be the only LJC that is having this problem. The youth workers currently running the sessions were given their notice in July, and there is no-one in place to start them again in September."
She said youngsters were already unhappy that there would be a change of staff, but it had been agreed to merge two of the three clubs and ask for a small contribution towards refreshments to keep services going on a reduced budget of just £10,850 for the next year – but if there was no-one to lead the sessions it would all be in vain.
Shropshire Council resolved to stop delivering youth services directly earlier this year in a bid to save £140,000.
Instead it tasked Local Joint Committees – made up of area town and parish councils along with other organisations – with "commissioning" youth workers privately.
Maria Jones, spokeswoman for Shropshire Council, said "alternative ideas" were discussed.
"More information on these ideas is being gathered this week to enable a decision on the best approach to be made," she added.
