Townships say no to Youth Zone plans

Three townships have said that they don’t want a Youth Zone in Rochdale.

Councillor Ann Stott raised the issue of a Youth Zone in a full council meeting in October but the committee dismissed these plans at Wednesday night’s township meeting.

Chairwoman of Rochdale Township Cecile Biant said: “The Township is against it as a whole.

“We already have an excellent youth service with Link4Life facilities in all of the townships. Centres like this that have been successful have been in areas where there was relatively nothing before.”

An organisation called Onside have raised over £50 million to build youth centres across the north west and would be involved with this project but Councillor Biant raised issues over the annual cost of such a centre.

“We’ve found that the revenue cost of these centres is nearly half a million pounds a year. The township feels at a time of restraint that it is not a good idea to be spending this money.

“In other areas that have opened centres, although the youth budgets were not touched initially, they were drastically reduced over time. We felt we would rather invest in our current services if we have the money to do so.

“We were told that the building would hold 300-400 young people a night but some councillors went to visit other centres and we found that in one building there were 100 young people there, in another there were 30 and in another there were just seven.”

Councillor Biant also felt that these facilities were not required due to the high standard of youth services the town already provides: “We already have an excellent youth service with our Link4Life facilities. Other centres that have been successful have been in places where there was relatively nothing before.”

Councillor Aftab Hussain, chair of the Pennines township committee, felt that a major issue with the centre would be the location: “One of the main problems is that the centre will only be in one place. If the centre is placed in Rochdale for example, it will be difficult for young people from places like Littleborough, Smallbridge and Heywood.”

Councillor Hussain also raised issues over the staffing of the youth zone: “There are already centres in Oldham and Manchester operating without qualified staff for safeguarding children.”

The chairman of the Heywood Township, Councillor Raymond Dutton, agreed that services could be more equally distributed across the borough. He said: “Some concerns were raised but hopefully we can reach a compromise.

“There seemed to be an imbalance across the borough. For example, people from Heywood and Middleton feel that the youth budget could be distributed more evenly.”