Brighton and Hove's councillors have unanimously backed spending £2.3 million on refurbishing Brighton Youth Centre.
Labour councillor Lucy Helliwell told a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting that a valuation had confirmed that the building would be worth significantly more once the work was complete.
At a meeting of the full council at Hove Town Hall on Thursday (20 July), she said that the building in Edward Street was currently worth £1.6 million. After the rebuild, it was expected to be worth £4.5 million.
Councillors backed the investment as part of a £6.2 million project, with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport contributing a £4.3 million Youth Investment Fund grant.
Councillor Helliwell, the joint chair of the council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee, said:
“It is so lovely to see youth services benefiting from this level of investment.
“After facing so many cuts from the Conservative government over the past 13 years, many areas have no – or extremely limited – youth services which can have a huge impact on the mental health of young people, with some turning to anti-social behaviour and crime.”
Councillor Helliwell told councillors that the council would have a charge over the freehold for the youth centre premises for 50 years, providing a measure of security.
This would allow the council to force a sale in the event of a “material default” or if the building ceased to be used as a youth centre.
She said that young people from across Brighton and Hove took part in activities at the centre.
And once the work was complete, this centre was expected to support more than 2,000 youngsters a year in a variety of ways.
Green councillor Ellen McLeay congratulated her former Green colleagues, saying that the project was the result of years of work to plan and finance it.
She said:
“This is a huge breakthrough. This was a Green financial plan to make this necessary refurbishment possible, bringing in additional grant funding of £4.3 million.
“With this roadmap, the Brighton Youth Centre will be able to support young people in Brighton and Hove with the ongoing funding and refurbishment, which will mean the centre can go on to build bigger and better things for young people across the city.”
Conservative group leader Alistair McNair said that his group welcomed the improvements to the facilities, adding:
“We do hope that the outer areas of Brighton and Hove are also not forgotten.”
“Seeing that Madeira Terraces has been postponed due to rising costs, we do worry that £6.2 million is sufficient.”
Councillor Helliwell said that the government grant and the council contribution meant that there would be a £400,000 contingency which should be enough to cover cost increases.
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