I published this on Brent Council's Youth Service cuts on October 9th 2015:
Look out for regeneration proposals at the two sites.
The proposed retention of the Roundwood Centre means that there will be less money for other aspects of the youth service and the Wembley Youth Centre and Granville will no longer be funded from April 2016. They will be handed back to the Council's Asset Management Service and presumably sold off. The running costs of the Poplar Grove Centre will in future be met by Brent River College.Today the Kilburn Times LINK reports:
Brent Council is to close two youth centres and the remaining two will change the services it will offer.I am afraid that there was never a real chance that an outside organisation would run the centres without funding and I suspect the Council knew this.
Granville in Anson Road, Cricklewood, and Wembley in London Road, will close for good on Friday, after the town hall failed to find an outside organisation to take over its day-to-day running.
Look out for regeneration proposals at the two sites.
1 comment:
The article you refer to in Brent and Kilburn times is not factually correct. Wembley Crime Prevention submitted expression of interest in a Community Asset Transfer in early February of this year, and so far have not received a response by Brent Council. They have and were until yesterday running most of the projects at Wembley Youth and Community Centre, along with Junior Collins who has been employed by Brent Council as Youth Leader at this facility for 25 years. Boxing classes for Male and Female Youth, Self Defence classes for Females, Taekwondo, Basketball , Football, Street Dance, Homework Club, Mentoring for Young People who have or are susceptible to being involved in Gang culture. The majority of assets housed at this Youth Club are owned by Wembley Crime Prevention charity, and they have consistently invested in upgrading the facilities such as installing a new kitchen and bathrooms a few years ago.
These projects have and still are being funded and supported by "Children in Need" and were featured on the recent fundraising live programme on BBC1 in November 2015 aswell as BBC News London. WCP is also funded and supported by Wembley National Stadium, Sport England, Mayor of London Fund, Edward Harvist Trust, Grassroots, Asda Wembley, MacDonalds, Daniels Estate Agents and the now defunct Ward Working fund of Brent Council. All Youth projects have now been temporarily suspended as of yesterday because of Brent Councils decision. So where does that leave the young people of Brent?
Will they go the Roundwood Facility? I doubt it. It is common knowledge, and it has been outlined at many community meetings, the only reason the Roundwood facility would be kept open as a hub is purely because of the financial implications incurred by Brent Council. Roundwood was funded by £4.997 million from National Lottery, and it would involve a payback the same as Stonebridge Adventure Playground if it were closed. Roundwood has never been popular or utilised by young people or ever would be for many reasons, one of which it is only open for 4 hours a week, 2 hours on a Monday and Friday and has more staff than patrons, runs no projects, and despite having "state of the art facilities", and where its situated.
However I do question the role of Brent Youth Parliament ( whom the council continue to finance at a cost of £60K per annum) who is purported to play a "valuable role within the Council's decision making process" surely we should have heard something from them, as it has been reported they would be part of the consultation process and strategy for the future. I would have thought they would be shouting from the rooftops " save our Youth Services" if only to protect their own existence. Sad to say I have not heard a whisper or seen any comments from anyone representing BYP.
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