WESTBURY Youth Club has received a contribution from the area board towards the hire of the venue and admin costs.
Board members agreed to grant £2,200 – two-thirds of a £3,345 request from the club’s Beth Mullins, at their recent meeting.
Beth said, “We will spend part of the money on the hire for the venue. We charge £1 entrance – we tried £2 entrance but feedback from members showed us it was too expensive and they weren’t able to come – so we can’t afford to pay the hire costs from the entrance fees.
“The rest of the money is to pay for admin costs such as public liability insurance, policy and risk assessments, and ensuring people are DBA checked and first aid trained etc.
“The money will also pay for materials such as paper, ink, membership forms, and any arts and crafts stuff we may need.”
Cllr Matthew Dean thanked Beth for the wonderful work the youth club does but said, “The problem we have is our total budget for the year is only £12,000 and £3,000 is a significant slug of our total budget. I’d like to support your request and suggest granting £2,200, so 2/3 of what they are asking for.”
Board chair, cllr Suzanne Wickham seconded and asked Beth whether the club had approached any other potential funders.
Beth said they did not meet requirements of other funders they had looked into but were hopeful that a bid for Lottery funding would be successful.
Cllr Gordon King, backed by cllr Dean, urged her to apply to Westbury Town Council, saying, “This is a great project – don’t be despondent.”
Cllr Wickham echoed that, saying, “Nobody is going to dispute this is brilliant work and that’s what the youth need. I think it’s a sensible option to go to Westbury Town Council.”
Cllr King added, “Yes I think it’s a compromise and there should be joint funding.”
Westbury Youth Club has been running for four years and temporarily went to Warminster before returning in September 2020. It is now based at the Westbury Community Project.
It runs on Wednesdays during term time, with sessions being 1.5 hours long, for young people aged 11 to 19 or aged up to 25 if they have disabilities. Due to Covid the club can currently accommodate up to 15 members.
It offers a range of activities including arts and crafts, basketball, dodgeball, swing ball and a café.
