Youth club is holding out for a 'hero' (From Stroud News and Journal)

Youth club is holding out for a 'hero'

IMPASSIONED pleas for help have been made by groups and clubs in Stonehouse as their dilapidated and crumbling home faces closure.

The Stonehouse Youth Club building has reached crisis point after years of decline and problems - including a leaking roof and no central heating.

But defiant community groups are determined to save their treasured Elms Road meeting hall, which belongs to St Cyr's Church and has 200 regular users.

"I would be absolutely devastated if it was shut and pulled down," said Diane King, a leader of the trailblazing Itchy Feet Dance Group, which swept the board at a dance competition in Plymouth earlier this month.

"The building is rundown and people wonder why we can't find somewhere else but I couldn't see it close as I have so many happy memories of the place," said Mrs King, who has been organising dance classes at the centre since she was 13.

"It used to hold wedding receptions, clubs and other things for the community and there's nothing else that I call a proper community building.

"A lot of time is spent running down the youth but we need to give them somewhere to go."

The alarm was sounded by Gloucestershire county councillor, Lesley Williams (Lab, Stonehouse), who said funds are urgently needed if the club is to survive.

"There is absolutely no spare cash to do anything with the building, which is in a dilapidated state and is continuing to deteriorate," she said.

"We need to find a hero who is prepared to take on the fundraising to help make the place fit for the people to use.

"The groups are extremely important to Stonehouse, which needs places for people to meet and I believe if we made improvements other new groups would use it."

Along with the dance group, the centre is used by Stonehouse Youth Club itself and the Physically Handicapped Able Bodied (PHAB) Group.

A trial two-month dispersal order is currently operating in Stonehouse to tackle a rise in anti-social behaviour.

It means police can split up gangs of troublesome youths.

Dave Purnell, Stonehouse Youth Leader, said: "This is not just a building this is the soul of the community and without the youth club teenagers are going to find themselves on the streets."

No one from the church was available to comment as the SNJ went to press.