Booming Blackmore youth clubs will be going out with a bang next Friday (July 16) as they hold their final sessions at the community centre which Essex County Council hopes to sell off in the coming months.
The youth groups will be holding an evening fete open to everyone to mark the end of their time at the Nine Ashes Road centre which is housed in the Victorian building which once provided a home for the village school.
For more than a year the youth clubs based at Blackmore Community Centre have been fighting for survival after Essex Youth Service pulled out of running sessions there in February 2003 and the library based in another part of the building was closed down.
Now they face an uncertain future with the Blackmore community needing to raise money to match the funding the county council might offer towards building a new centre elsewhere in the village.
Alison Potter, one of the fete organisers, said: "This is a thriving youth club which benefits the whole village by giving young people something to do on a Friday night. It is such a shame that such a good and successful thing is being taken away."
It is hoped to temporarily continue the clubs at the village hall from next term until a permanent solution is found.
Published Friday July 9, 2004
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