Youth club in limbo as building put up for sale

A youth club in Cornwall faces closure unless it can secure £100,000 by the end of April to buy the building it currently leases, bosses say.

The Callington Youth Project Group, which opened in May last year, holds drop in sessions on Wednesdays and Fridays at The Vault youth centre.

However, the former Lloyds Bank building the club uses has come up for sale and chairman Paul Carey fears they may be gazumped by another interested buyer.

He said: "The truth is there is nowhere else... as good as The Vault youth centre - it's nice and big, there's room upstairs to expand to create some flats that we could rent out and provide a sustainable income."

Mr Carey said they have another year on their lease but if someone else bought the property they would be given three months' notice before they were "out on our heels".

"We've got the opportunity to buy it," he said.

"We need another £100,000 to complete the deal, if we can do that by the end of April we'll be home and dry - we can secure the building and keep it as a youth club forever.

"We've been lucky to secure grants to cover half the money we need and we're hoping that another couple of grants applications that have been made will come through.

"What would be really good though is to show some community support because it's important we can show funders we have the community behind us."

The youth group is attended by about 45 to 55 young people, said organisers.

Cara, 15, who visits the youth club, said: "I love it here, it's a great place to get away from everything going on at home because life has been hectic over the last year.

"I've loved coming here, playing games, practising for my GCSEs, I've loved every second of it.

"To me it's very important to save it, because it distracts teenagers, gets them off the streets from doing stuff they shouldn't do, so I would love this space to stay open."

Ruan, 14, another club member, said: "I think The Vault is a good place to go because it's good to get out of the house sometimes and talk to people.

"I would say it has made me a better person."

Madison, 14, added: "I'd say The Vault is probably the best place to be when you are struggling because you can make new friends and there's lots of things to do when you get bored."

Follow BBC Cornwall on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].