THE multi-million £ new Culcheth High School will offer super facilities for a Friday night “drop in” youth club – but many local residents fear it will not be able to function because of a lack of people to run it.
Members of the public – including volunteers who run the existing youth club at Culcheth Methodist Church – attended the monthly parish council meeting to hear a presentation on the new school by business manager Amanda Stevens and Ivan Baracski, of Select Leisure, who will run community facilities at the school.
They heard the school – due to open in July – would provide not only a new, modern high school but also a wide range of community facilities, including fitness suite, sports facilities, drama and recording studios, IT suite, theatre space, etc.
It would be able to accommodate local theatre groups, sports clubs, evening classes, a film society and organisations such as SureStart and On the Move.
The school would even be able to collect rainwater from the roof which would be used for flushing toilets!
While some community facilities would only be available during out-of-school hours, some, such as the fitness suite, would be open even when the school was open.
But residents expressed concern that the proposed Friday drop-in sessions for youngsters would not happen unless it was staffed.
Ms Stevens admitted that the school was providing the facilities only. The sessions would have to be staffed by the borough council’s youth service or by volunteers.
The meeting heard that the Friday night youth club at the Methodist Church now had a membership of about 100 and weekly attendances of around 60 and the minister, the Rev Paul Martin, said it was intended the club should continue.
Additional youth clubs had been started at Rixton and, now, at Glazebury Methodist Church.
The council accepted that there were some young people who would never attend youth clubs but simply wanted somewhere to “hang out.”
