A CASH-STRAPPED youth centre in Chard has been saved from immediate closure after being thrown a £14,000 lifeline.

The centre is in a funding crisis and needs a bid for Lottery funding to keep youth provision in the town.

South Somerset District Council’s Area West committee had “no alternative” last Wednesday but to unanimously approve the cash injection and grant a stay of execution for the community asset.

The money will pay for the rent of its Essex Close home, which in turn is rented off the district council.

It is hoped the £14,000 will give the Chard Area Youth Committee time to put together an application for Lottery funding. An additional £1,925 was also agreed to help with the cost of the bid.

The council’s policy has been to ‘taper’ the amount of grants to community organisations in recent years, putting more emphasis on the groups themselves fundraising and controlling costs.

But in his report to the committee, Area West development manager Andrew Gillespie said the council had no option.

He said: “In early spring 2014 new managing trustees were appointed to the CAYC and they asked to meet me. They explained that their analysis showed the CAYC reserves were very depleted.

“They made it clear that their individual liability to meet SSDC rental costs would force them to close the centre immediately.”

The bid will aim to secure £145,272 of Lottery funding, which could secure three years of youth provision in Chard, and the district council’s contributions will be taken from the allocation of £39,620 held in the area reserve.

Club members and supporters turned out at the meeting to speak in support of the recommendations.

During the public forum, Tricia O’Brien said: “With the help of SSDC we’re aiming to secure a grant to enable us to prepare an application (Stage 1) for Lottery funding which could give the Young People’s Centre a future.

“With the help of SSDC and Chard Town Council we were able to secure grants to provide centrebased youth work under a Service Level Agreement with Active Learning and Skills – a not for profit community interest company – while detached youth work is delivered by the charity Streetspace.

“We’re a dedicated group of nine volunteers who are also exploring other ways of fundraising, one of which is the ‘Sponsoring a Square’ of the building for £2 where members of the public or businesses can sponsor an area of the building.

“Our young people have been instrumental in getting this fundraising activity off to a good start.”

Cllr Nigel Mermagen, ward member for Chard Avishayes, said: “This is clearly an emergency situation.

We’ve heard how important it is and it would be absolutely desperate if we didn’t have proper youth provision.

“There’s a danger Chard could slip back into the bad old days which prevailed maybe 20 years ago.

“It’s essential that we take steps to stop this happening again.

“It’s clearly not an ideal situation to spend money when we spent the past few years reducing contributions to such groups but we really have no alternative.

District council leader Ric Pallister said: “We can’t let it go – it’s absolutely crucial and it’s not up for discussion.

“It has got in a bit of a hole, and however they’ve ended up in this mess, we have to secure a way forward financially.

“The building isn’t fit for purpose – it has concrete cancer – and we had to spend the money on the heating system but we have no alternative and we have to keep it going for some point in the future when it has to come down.

“My job is to find a viable and improved building for the future.”

Cllr Dave Bulmer admitted this could be the “last chance” for the club to secure funding, while Cllr Martin Wale said the council had to ensure that such a disaster did not happen again.

Committee chairman Cllr Angie Singleton said: “This is why I’ve always been passionate that we have members on the outside bodies, which is really to avoid times like this when we’re facing a crisis when we should have been aware of the situation sooner.

“I’m not sure why that happened but we’re where we are and we’ll do everything we can to help the club.”