Youth groups seek site for new headquarters (From Gazette Series)

Youth groups seek site for new headquarters

POPULAR youth organisations are facing a desperate struggle to find a safe and secure site for a new headquarters.

The 649 (Dursley) Air Training Corps and the town's Army Cadet Force may be forced to close if a plot cannot be found for a building to hold training sessions.

The ageing headquarters on the Rednock School site in Kingshill Lane is facing an uncertain future and ATC commanding officer Chris Whatling said the building is far from ideal.

"It is a modular building that has been there since the 1970s and is in a very bad state of repair," he said. "The window frames are rotten and it is basically falling apart.

"Only last week a group of youths were throwing rocks at the cadets as they trained and the hut is constantly being vandalised. We just want somewhere safe and secure where these kids can train."

The group has been awarded a significant amount of government funding to build a new HQ. But despite numerous searches and appeals over the last few months no site has been identified as a potential one.

"We are in a crazy situation where we have the money but no where to put it," Mr Whatling said. "The area the headquarters occupies in the school has long been the desired site for a new school if funds are realised. We have therefore only been granted a year-by-year lease and there is no guarantee it will be there in ten years time.

"We have been given funds but the organisation granting the money will not put a new building on a site which only has a one year lease."

He said an ideal spot would be the former on the former Lister Petter site, which is being redeveloped by the South West Regional Development Agency.

"We have been told the site is being developed as a private initiative. Our biggest problem is that the more money we spend on footings the less we have for the actual building and we are finding this is another stumbling block.

"We have been looking in Dursley for the past eight or nine months and nothing suitable has come up. We have been waiting for the funds to be realised for the last seven years and really need to find somewhere for the new building."

The Dursley cadet groups were formed in February, 1941, and have around 60 members.

Mr Whatling said they are popular organisations. He explained: "It gives boys and girls in the town something to do and gets them off the streets. The worst case scenario would be that we were forced to fold the group but we do need somewhere to hold the training sessions."