Open more hours.

A youth centre is empty for long periods while youngsters complain they have nothing to do, it has been claimed.

Southwell Town Forum is concerned that the Core Youth Centre, on King Street, is not used enough.

The purpose-built centre, provided as part of a £11/2m library and registrar’s office development two years ago, opens three nights a week.

The forum chairman, Mr Peter Harris, said it should be open every night to help keep youths off the streets.

He said youngsters repeatedly said there was not a lot for them to do in the town.

Members of the forum raised the youth centre issue as they reviewed progress on projects identified in the 2004 Southwell Town Plan.

Mr Harris said the forum expected the youth centre to be open more.

He said the original intention was to integrate the library with the youth centre.

He said there had been plans for interconnecting doors so that resources in the library could be available to people using the youth centre, and vice versa.

Mr Harris said there were fewer volunteers helping than anticipated because Criminal Records Bureau checks took too long and people were not prepared to go through the process.

Forum member Mr Andrew Gregory said: “It is very disappointing that the county council provided the facility but cannot support it with infrastructure and back-up.

“It is like providing a state-of-the-art football stadium without having a team to play there.”

The centre opens from 7pm-9.15pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and from 6.30pm to 9pm on Fridays.

Staffing problems and limited funding were given as reasons for not increasng the hours.

The chairman of Southwell Youth Support, Mrs Kate Sartain, said up to four staff each worked at the centre for two or three hours a week.

She said the centre manager, Ann Robinson, did not have time to take on and train new staff.

The county councillor for Southwell, Mr Bruce Laughton, said: “It is easier to get capital to build a centre than revenue to keep it running.”

Amy Simpson (16) of Corkhill Lane, Normanton, visits the youth centre at least once a week.

She said there was hardly anything for young people to do in Southwell other than go to the leisure centre.

Amy said the centre should be open more, particularly at weekends and on Monday evenings.

There is no sign outside the centre, only a poster displaying the opening times that is stuck on the glass door.

Amy said a lot of young people in the town didn’t know the youth centre existed.

A spokesman for the county council said they were reviewing opening hours at the centre.

She said the review would look at the centre’s relationship with the library, with the aim of developing it to benefit both young people and the library.

She said there were problems appointing staff for the centre and one of the issues was obtaining CRB clearance.

“It remains our responsibility, however, regardless of recruitment issues, to ensure that the centre remains open, responding to the needs of young people,” she said. “We aim to ensure that our centres are staffed by trained youth workers and that ratios of staff to young people are appropriate.”