Plans for youth café go on display (From Gazette Series)

Plans for youth café go on display in Yate

1:48pm Tuesday 8th September 2009 in News By Alexandra Womack

ARCHITECTS' plans for a café for teenagers have gone on display in Yate.

The £1.3million project, being funded by South Gloucestershire Council and Yate Town Council, was finally agreed after 10 years of talks earlier this summer.

The café will be built on land next to Yate Leisure Centre and as well as boasting innovative architecture it will offer 11 to 18-year-olds a place to meet their friends, watch films in a small cinema, enjoy music nights and even do their homework.

Margaret Lamb, area manager for South Gloucestershire Council’s youth services, said: "Young people are getting excited about having an upstairs cinema for 40 to 50 people.

"They also want a place to sit, meet and study that is not one of their parents’ houses.

"There will be live gigs and an under 18s nightclub scene on Friday nights."

She said since the detailed proposals went on display at Yate Leisure Centre last week all the feedback from members of the public had been positive.

Northavon MP Steve Webb, who has long campaigned for a cinema for the town, welcomed the plans.

He said: "I like the fact that there is a secure space outdoors with a barbecue area.

"It will be a social area where young people can feel safe."

Town councillor Chris Willmore, who has supported the café project since it was first proposed, said: "All the feedback we have had has been very positive. Young people care about what is going inside but from an adult’s perspective they just want us to get on with it.

"It has been very clear that young people do not want this to be tucked away at the back of the town.

"They want it to be a statement about the future and about their place in Yate."

Town mayor Cllr Ian Blair said: "This gives us the opportunity to do something with that corner of town. It was just a blank space which didn’t do anything for Yate."

Final designs for the landmark building will be agreed at a meeting on September 23 and a planning application will be submitted to South Gloucestershire Council in late October. It is hoped construction work will begin in June 2010 and the café will open in April 2011.