Hopes for a youth centre in the Queens Park area of Billericay have been thrown into crisis after it emerged any new facility might not be able to gain full planning permission.

Plans for a new facility for young people and the community, to be built on land close to Hannakins Farm in Rosebay Avenue, was believed to have been granted outline conditional planning permission in July 1998.

Because of this campaigners have been optimistically working to develop interest and funding for the project, but it now appears it may all be in vain.

Cllr Trevor Stansfield, chairman of the Town Council - which has been heavily involved in the project - said: "We were expecting the outline planning permission to expire in 2001 and were hoping to extend it.

"Because of some kind of mix up we will have problems getting further planning permission. This is because the guidelines seem to have changed and it is much more difficult to gain planning permission for developments on open space.

"We are waiting for the planning status of the land to be cleared up, but if this is true it would be very unfortunate as there is no obvious alternative site."

At the start of the year the scheme gained new momentum when a variety of local groups including various churches, Billericay's Youth Town Council and Essex Youth Service came together to drive the project forward.

Following this Billericay Youth Town Council, supported by Essex Youth Service, has organised a series of youth nights at Hannakins Farm Community Centre to show what could be achieved if there was a permanent facility there.

Meanwhile both Essex Youth Service and the Guinness Trust have been looking at ways of accessing funds to turn the long held dream into a reality.

David Hopes, a member of the steering group working on the project, said: "For the time being we are going to continue with the pilot nights at Hannakins Farm and decide where to go from here.

"We will be very disappointed if the planning permission issue cannot be cleared up. There is a need to keep this going and we will have to look for a new site if necessary.

"Hannakins Farm Community Centre has said we may be able to use their hall in the future, but we will need to look at this in more detail."

Dave Talbot, from the Guinness Trust, said: "We had outline planning permission granted in 1998, but we were not planning to submit any more substantial plans until we had prepared firm proposals. We have always had the impression that outline permission is all that is needed for the moment."

Basildon Council is at the moment clarifying the exact planning situation regarding the project.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.