Shrewsbury Town Council to take over youth services
Youth services in Shrewsbury will be taken over by the town council after £80,000 of funding was confirmed.
Shrewsbury Town Council has moved to take control of the services from Shropshire Council, whose cabinet confirmed the agreement yesterday.
Councillor Alan Mosley, leader of Shrewsbury Town Council, said the authority was looking forward to being responsible for the services, and would be contributing more than £20,000 funding of its own.
He said: "All the members of Shrewsbury Town Council welcome the opportunity to take this great responsibility for youth services and will develop interesting and innovative ideas for how to spend the money.
"The town council is also putting an additional £25,000 into that budget to further enhance provision in the area."
Shropshire Council has been looking for local joint committees to take over the management of youth services around the county.
Ann Hartley, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for children's services, has said that the system will result in a better use of funding and improved services for young people.
She said: "The fundamental premise of this approach to the future of youth activities is that when community organisations work collaboratively with public sector organisations they can achieve better outcomes for their communities.
"Organisations have resources – buildings, finance, people and expertise – and by aligning these together it should be possible to use them more effectively to make a positive difference to people's lives within their communities."
During the cabinet meeting, Councillor Mosley pressed the authority's leader Councillor Keith Barrow over the future of the funding plans, which are currently only earmarked for 18 months.
Councillor Barrow said there is no intention to cut the budget and he was confident that the new system would see young people having access to better youth services.
As part of the move a one-off sum of £1,500 was also awarded to Broseley to aid with the transition of youth services in the area.
Councillor Barrow has hailed the plans as providing "best value".
He said: "We understand the value of providing out-of-school activities for our youngsters and want to get the best value that we can for our cash.
"We believe that local communities are the best to deliver this."
