New Milton youth hub breakthrough in sight thanks to landowner's offer

A BREAKTHROUGH was hailed in the hunt for a new permanent youth centre for New Milton following the sell-off of the previous facility that the town had used for 30 years.

Together with its youth coordinator, Silma Ramsaywack, and town development manager Suna King, the town council has spent the last few years looking for a new site to host activities for the area’s youngsters.

As reported in the A&T, members were horrified to hear in 2015 that the Phoenix Centre on Culver Road was sold off by Hampshire County Council. It was handed over to the Education Funding Agency in March 2017.

Since being opened by billionaire Virgin entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson in 1987, the Phoenix Centre had been the town’s main hub for activities and services aimed at children and young people.

Announcing the positive development at Monday’s amenities committee meeting, Cllr Steve Clarke said the town council’s youth working party had been in talks with local agricultural company Double H Nurseries.

The firm had expressed interest in handing over a piece of its land in Gore Road, near the Willow Barn Restaurant and Hotel, on which a new youth centre building could potentially be built.

Further discussions were had, Cllr Clarke said, about how the land could be handed over to the town council or the Youth Foundation Trust it is currently working to set up.

He said it was hoped the design of the building could be handled by spudYOUTH, a Sway-based workshop programme for young people aged 12 and upwards who are interested in a career in architecture and design.

“The partnership with SPUD felt absolutely the ideal way forward,” Cllr Clarke told the meeting, stressing the building’s design would have to be sympathetic to the listed Willow Barn.

“The building needs to be a good looking building and one that is used throughout the week to pay for itself. Certainly Monday to Friday, but we’d also like to see it used by the community at the weekends.

“The key thing is that we want to set up a youth centre that cannot be sold and is owned by the community and the young people of this town.”

The news was welcomed by amenities committee chairman Cllr Geoffrey Blunden who said the town had “exciting times ahead”.

Members agreed that the working party should look into plans for the design of the potential new youth facility and how much it could cost.