Axe falls on Wolverhampton youth clubs in bid to save £750k
Ten youth clubs will no longer be run by Wolverhampton City Council while others will close for four weeks a year after council chiefs formally agreed a series of cost-cutting measures which, it is hoped, will save £750,000 over the next two years.
Dozens of objectors attended a meeting of the local authority where they staged an impromptu Harlem Shake dance in front of councillors to show their disapproval.
However, bosses decided to plough ahead with proposals to stop running 10 of the 'least well-used' youth clubs, which will be moved from their current location and be operated by volunteers instead.
The number of youth club sessions offered each week will drop from 56 to 54 and the council also intends to make more use of community groups, churches and other voluntary organisations by offering grants worth a total of £40,000 to make up for the loss of services.
The number of weeks youth clubs provide services will be reduced from 48 to 44 and up to 28 posts will be lost under changes but 10 are currently already vacant.
Councillor Val Gibson, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "It's regrettable we have to go down this route but we have to make these savings.
"The reality is that Government is no longer funding local government as it did in the past." Penn Fields Girls Group and the Heath Town youth centre, Bilston, Long Knowle, Hickman and Brooklands youth clubs are among those that the council will stop running.
People from the voluntary sector will be paid to run sessions under a pilot programme to see if the sector can take on the work previously done by the council.
The Youth Council will also be moved out of Bond House, Bond Street, in a bid to make savings.
