Young ones having some fun

Charity-run Base71 centre charges 50p to enter, has hot meals for £1... and locals can't get enough of it

- BY LUCY THORNTON

This could finally be the miracle solution the nation has been searching for... Barnsley has seen a dramatic drop in antisocial behaviour, the curse of many a town centre these days.

The South Yorkshire town's bus stations and streets have mysteriously been emptied of bored, loitering teens.

And to solve this mystery, you need to head just three minutes out of the centre, to a huge new red building.

The £10million youth club, Base71 Youth Zone, has been going down a storm, with 250 kids and teenagers queuing round the block for up to two hours to get in.

Six thousand young people have signed up since November - a target organisers expected would take two years to reach.

But it's the Rolls-Royce of youth clubs, where the kids get to sit in on interviews for the staff, parents are kept out, phones are put in lockers and nobody gets banned - only the word itself.

It has an impressive rooftop football pitch, a towering 12m climbing wall, a training kitchen, a beauty salon, a gym, a boxing ring and music and podcast rooms.

Entry costs 50p and a hot meal costs £1.

The young members voted overwhelmingly to allow searches with wands on entry, to keep out knives and vapes.

"It's mint," is the verdict of 18-year-old Connor Beevers. "There's only one place I come to now when I leave my house.

"Before, I used to stay at home and play games like Fifa every day.

"I'd spend hours and hours in my bedroom. At first I was nervous to come here, but I've made a couple of friends."

Base71 is part of a £63m youth club revival and has been built by the charity OnSide - which received more than half the funding from the local council and the Asos Foundation.

Next they will open zones in Grimsby, Preston, Bristol and Crewe, taking the total number around the UK to 21.