The York House car park, Empire Way
Next week's Brent Cabinet will consider moves to establish an Onside Youth Zone centre at the York House car park site in Wembley.
The site was earmarked for a new primary school, the Ark Somerville, but the project has been dropped by the Department for Education for the present, due to falling school rolls in the area.
The DfE would need to be released from its obligation to Quintain to provide the school under Section 106 and could then sell the site on the open market or directly to Brent Council.
The officers report LINK describes what happens at Onside Youth Zones:
Youth Zones provide “somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to” and aim to be safe, supportive and affordable places where young people can spend their free time constructively. Targeting young people aged 8-19, and up to 25 with additional needs, Youth Zones provide large-scale multi-activity facilities which typically include multi-use 3G pitches, indoor sports hall, climbing wall, gym, music, dance and performing arts facilities and café, along with flexible spaces that can respond to young people’s changing needs and preferences.
Given the size of the site some of that provision would not be possible but it would still be a facility that would help make up for some of the youth provision cut by Brent Council.
As Brent Youth Centres were cut for financial reasons it is worth looking at where the Council now expect funding to come from:
SCIL = Strategic Community Infrastructure Levy
MTFS = Medium Term Financial Strategy
The charity Onside Youth runs a centre in nearby Barnet. You can read about it HERE
