THE former Lloyds-TSB building, in Time Square, has been earmarked as the likely location for Warrington’s proposed new town centre youth café.
Plans to provide the facility – overseen by the borough council, youth organisations and representatives of the private 
sector – are gathering pace.
Funding will come from the council and the private sector.
Cllr Sheila Woodyatt, the council’s executive member for Education and Young People said: “Our immediate priority is to open up a youth café in the old Lloyds TSB building in Time Square.
“Whenever we consult with young people, they tell us a café is what they want. This building is within easy walking distance of the bus interchange and young people are really excited about its potential.
“They see it as a great place to meet up on weekdays or at the weekend. We are involving them in designing how it should look and what facilities should be provided. We hope it will open in a few months time.”
Council leader Ian Marks added: “There are a number of other hubs for young people in the town such as the Peace Centre, Warrington Youth Club and Orford Youth Base. We want them all to work together and we are looking at the possibility of laying on public transport between the different locations.
“We want to expand what we are offering young people in Warrington and get even more people involved.”
Ben Caldwell, chairman of Warrington Youth Club, is leading the private sector fundraising effort in the borough.
He said: “In the next few years our objective is to build a bigger youth zone somewhere in the town centre along the lines of the highly successful Bolton Lads and Girls Club.
“We see the youth café as an important stepping stone on the way to achieving this. We intend to transform the facilities for young people in Warrington.”
Pictured: Cllr Woodyatt and Steph Taylor, from the council’s youth service outside the proposed site for the youth café.
Former bank to become youth cafe
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
5 Comments
A youth Cafe might be OK for older youths, it would be interesting to hear what the youth parliament reps think. A youth zone is another matter, most parents I know of 13-16yr olds do everything they can to keep their kids OUT of the town centre! Rather than syphoning off the funding allocated for youth projects to pay the huge rents/rates of empty town centre business premises, wouldn’t contributing to costs to keep localised youth clubs/centres open be more appropriate? Or would that perhaps hamper any plans the council may have for generating £££s by closing down community venues and selling off the sites?
Tom Jennings, the Youth parliament MP has already been involved in this project and has introduced and commented on articles on this subject only a little time ago.
Myself and Ryan Barnes (North MYP) and IMPACT (Youth Council) are really excited at the pace of which the Youth Cafe is developing; Councillors are telling us it could be finished close to September this year! As for funding, the Council has allocated £170,000 to this project, with other possible funding from Private investors, so we hope that will cover the cost of the Youth Cafe… As for Council schemes to close other Community Centers in place of the Youth Cafe, I’ve not heard that to be the case….When it comes the “All singing, all dancing” Youth Zone, IMPACT had been campaigning for 2 years to get the ‘Youth Cafe’ and the Council last year came back with the plan for a Youth Zone which looks to be built over a period of 5-6 Years costing roughly £5million… Now I, myself think that although the Youth Zone is a good idea, I don’t see how it is financially affordable in this climate and waiting 5-6 years (when we only wanted a ‘Youth Cafe’) is not something I agree with. And so after discussions and reports etc, it has been decided that the Youth Cafe will be set up hopefully within this year, and the Youth Zone will be looked at a later date.
On the face of it this seems like a good idea, however the comment by Cllr Marks that: “we are looking at the possibility of laying on public transport between the different locations” is a bit rich seeing as the taxpaying adults can no longer get a bus on a Sunday evening, but the Council seem OK with providing transport to Non taxpaying citizens even though they have earmarked £170,000 to the project already…… a bit unfair methinks!
Pointless expensive stupid location its what the youth are asking for I dont think so .hover bikes is what they want in the survey I conducted.
Dont worry abbot public transport, buy a car.I
Shiala woodyatt shes a useless scheming troll she enjoys closing schools.