Closed meeting to decide fate of Brook Way toddler groups

A closed meeting of Bradley Stoke Town Council’s Youth Sub-Committee will tonight confirm whether or not toddler groups and other daytime users will be allowed to continue to use Brook Way Activity Centre after the town’s youth clubs relocate to the centre in July.

A statement that day-time users would have to quit, made by Town Clerk David Chandler at April’s Finance & Leisure Committee meeting, was later retracted at the Annual Town Meeting in May.

That meeting heard Cllr Mark Forsyth apologise to leaders of a Brook Way toddler group, who said they had raised a 251-signature petition against eviction.

Cllr Forsyth told that meeting that the council “would not want to see youth work impact on daytime users” and claimed it “never intended” to stop daytime users from being able to hire the centre.

But now it seems that this was not the last word on the matter and tonight’s meeting will once again discuss the thorny topic.

The involvement of Patchway Town Council (PTC) in the youth club project was thrown into doubt when a meeting of its Finance Committee heard that councillors had “many concerns”, noting that it would “set a precedent if one parish charged another for its residents to use a community facility”. The PTC Finance Committee was due to discuss the matter again at a meeting last night (Tuesday).

Meanwhile, the process of awarding a new contract for the supply of youth work in Bradley Stoke has moved on a step, with the publication of an “invitation for initial expressions of interest” by South Gloucestershire Council (SGC).

SGC now says it expects the new contract will be in place by November, although it is understood that the move to Brook Way is still planned to take place in July.

Related Links:

• Agenda for June 2009 Youth Sub-Ctte meeting (BSTC) [MS Word]
• Minutes of April 2009 F&L Committee meeting (BSTC) [MS Word]
• Invitation for initial expressions of interest (SBCP) [MS Word]