Plans for new Shrewsbury youth centre to be revealed within days

Monkmoor Lodge in Upton Lane, the home of Shropshire Youth Association (SYA), is set to be demolished to make way for the new purpose-built centre.

The project, which SYA has already secured the funding for, has now received the backing of the council’s cabinet in the form of a new 99-year lease to allow the work to go ahead.

The site was leased to SYA in 2017 under a 30-year community asset transfer, but a report to cabinet explained this needed to be extended “to reflect the increased investment in the site and potential to provide wider and more longlasting community benefit”.

Councillor Nick Bardsley, the council’s SYA representative, spoke at the meeting in support of the report.

He said: “I think this request for a long-term lease of 99 years is needed because we are not talking any more about second-hand demountable buildings, we are talking about a brand new purpose-built youth centre.

“A planning application, I’m told, will be submitted this week or next week.

“Subject to that going through the normal planning processes, work will start hopefully at the back end of this year and be completed about 12 months from now.

“I was a trustee of SYA many years ago and I can remember saying to (chief executive) Richard Parkes, ‘you can’t carry on being almost entirely dependant on grants from Shropshire Council’.

“It has been very hard work and it hasn’t been overnight, but SYA is now entirely self-funded and that, I think, is pretty commendable.

“The substantial grant funding that SYA has now been offered is very much attributable to the hard work put in by Richard Parkes and also a recognition of SYA’s status, not just locally in the West Midlands but nationally.”

The new centre will be a two-storey, 400 metre square, energy efficient building which will save the council an estimated £3,100 a year in running costs.

The project will also save the council £74,400 which would be needed to fund necessary maintenance work on the current demountable building if it was to remain in place.

As well as acting as SYA’s headquarters, Monkmoor Lodge hosts weekly youth clubs and activities for young people with learning difficulties, and offers wider community benefits by hosting training sessions, community meetings and other events.

Labour group leader Julia Buckley said Monkmoor councillor Pam Moseley was hugely supportive of the plans.

Cabinet unanimously agreed to grant the new lease.