TOWN leaders have blasted the local authority's plans to "take away" frontline youth services from Thornbury.

Major cuts to provision for young people in the region have meant that South Gloucestershire Council will stop funding the Sure Start and youth centres in Thornbury and instead invite bids from private organisations to run them.

Town councillors have expressed their outrage at the move, which they said could see both facilities scrapped if no company or association comes forward and takes charge of them.

Cllr Clive Parkinson told the Gazette the council was in the process of writing to district bosses to object to the privatisation plans.

"We have decided to reject their proposal to effectively withdraw the Sure Start Centre and youth centre from Thornbury," he said.

Their formal condemnation follows a swell of opposition in the town from worried parents and teenagers, who fear they will be left in the lurch if both facilities shut their doors.

As part of the proposal, the district council will cease running nine of its 15 Sure Start Centres, including the one in Severn Beach, and all its youth centres.

At a meeting at the Town Hall last month, Cllr Parkinson lambasted the plans, calling on his colleagues to join him in opposing them publicly.

He told them: "My big concern is that in effect what they want to do is close the youth centre and the Sure Start Centre in Thornbury claiming that they will provide a service from afar.

"We need to reject this on principle. These are clearly frontline services and they will be taken away from Thornbury."

Under the plans, one of two popular Sure Start Centres in Yate could also be axed. A purpose-built facility on Cranleigh Court Road has been safeguarded but a second centre, within the West Gate Health Centre, is under threat.

The centre only opened last year but the council now wants to use it as a contact centre for children in care. Chipping Sodbury and Wickwar could also lose their only youth centres.

The local authority has claimed that the changes to youth provision would benefit more children and teenagers in the region.

According to district bosses, only nine per cent of lone parents with children aged zero to four used the Sure Start Centres last year and just 20 per cent of local teenagers regularly visited the youth facilities.

If the provision overhaul goes ahead, the funding system will be replaced by, what they called, a fairer per-head system, allowing thousands more youths access to council funds.

The local authority is currently holding a public consultation period, which ends on May 25. To submit your comments or read the proposal visit www.southglos.gov.uk