Youth club boost is 'a strong start rather than finish line'

NOTTINGHAM City Council is planning major investment worth nearly £2 million to help keep “desperate” young people away from crime.

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

Incidents in recent months have included youths as young as 14 being arrested after machetes were brandished in Old Market Square in late November, while a teenage boy was “struck” with a machete in Glasshouse Street last month.

And at the weekend two teenage boys were hospitalised after stabbings in Bestwood.

The city council is now planning to spend £1.8 million on youth services in the coming financial year, beginning in April, after a settlement from the Government left it with £10 million more to invest.

Councillor Ethan Radford, the council’s deputy leader, says the figure is subject to further governance checks, but that it is the council’s ambition.

He said: “We would like to see youth clubs running out of our libraries and community centers, supporting the existing organisations that are already in place and for areas where there's gaps, filling them ourselves.

“It’s so we can get kids off the street into something meaningful, give them some role models, give them something that they can cling on to in really desperate situations and get them out of crime.

“We see people between the ages of 13 and 18 just roaming around with nothing worthwhile doing, falling into the wrong kind of path.”