John’s story: “We want us – not developers – to take over our youth club”

Our local youth centre is facing closure and the building is being sold off under austerity measures. We want to take control of the building either as a community asset or to buy it and run it to meet local needs of local young people.

What’s standing in your way? 

Backed by a corporate sponsor, we are proposing a rescue package to bring it back into use for the community, but we struggled to compete with outside developers both in terms of up-front finances and time. 

I have the voice of my community, I have the backing of two community football clubs and the backing of a major local property developer. What we need now is to understand how we do it. 

Even on smaller scale, we started a youth football programme in the local area during the summer and ended up with around 60 local children taking part, however, we have been trying to get access to deliver our sessions inside at the local Youth and Community Centre since September 2021 but we’ve faced barrier after barrier, passed from pillar to post, asked to produce endless documents, put our staff through costly training and issued with cumbersome checks. 

I have the voice of my community, I have the backing of two community football clubs and the backing of a major local property developer. What we need now is to understand how we do it. 

What difference would a Community Power Act make?

My area is one of the 10% most deprived in the country. It’s suffered from a rise in local anti-social behaviour, knife crime and county line exploitation. Young people need a place where they can be heard, where they feel they have a voice, where they can socialise with their peers, meet positive role models, create and realise positive aspirations and believe they have a way out of deprivation beyond their control.

A Community Right to Buy would give us the legal protections – and the time and support – that we need to take this much needed local asset into community ownership and ensure young people have what they need. A Community Right to Shape Public Services would mean those people most in need of services actually have a seat at the table when they are being designed. And a Community Right to Control Investment would ensure that the real needs of young people in my neighbourhood were taken into account when public money is being spent.

Young people need a place where they can be heard, where they feel they have a voice, create and realise positive aspirations and believe they have a way out of deprivation beyond their control.

I don’t think devolution of power has gone far enough. Let us determine the future of vital community assets to meet local needs. We owe it to our children, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to each other. This Act would give us the legal powers to make the changes our communities need and deserve.

John Lockson