Youth cuts dominate Regent’s Park ward Area Forum

Youth cuts to the Samuel Lithgow youth club dominated last night’s area forum, held at Netley School on William Street.

Samuel Lithgow, a local charity, is the only youth club on the estate – serving hundreds of local children out of a property owned by the council.

Over the last year the charity has – with the help of local councillors and the West Euston Partnership – secured a £350,000 contribution from British Land (from the Osnaburgh Street development), which helped a successful £400,000 contribution from the Big Lottery.

Despite this, the hard work of local volunteers has been undermined by a cut of over 30% in core funding – threatening the future of the youth club and its work with young people in the area while the centre is shut for rebuilding from the end of this year.

Without continued funding by the council the ability of Samuel Lithgow to operate effectively even after the rebuild is compromised.

The council defence – put across by the leader of the council recently - is that “more money is going into youth projects” than before. Actually this is being spent on programmes run elsewhere by the council, which cannot be used for staff wages. Without the funds to pay ‘core’ costs, youth projects have trouble recruiting and retaining staff, leading to a deteriorating service – with shorter hours.

What has happened to Lithgow has also happened to Fresh in Highgate, Queen’s Crescent and the Haven in Camden Town.

It’s not like this is a question of resources – the council have just admitted another massive underspend of £10 million. Just to give you an idea, to keep the Lithgow going would cost around £30,000 – 0.3% of this total.

Instead of stashing our cash – Camden should fund the Samuel Lithgow properly.