For over a year, community and council leaders have been discussing what future Peasedown St John Youth Centre might have.

Following the announcement in February 2017 by Bath and North East Somerset Council that youth services were to be commissioned out to third sector providers, a number of organisations have been exploring how Peasedown St John’s youth hub could continue to offer community-based youth work.

At Peasedown’s Party in the Park festival on Saturday, 9th June, there will be an opportunity for members of the public, young people, parents and interested residents to have their say.

St John’s Church, who have made an Expression of Interest in managing the youth centre, will be running a consultation stall and want to hear from as many people as possible. Joy Fraser, Churchwarden at St John’s Church, said: “Peasedown Youth and Community Centre has played an important role in our village for the past forty years. So many thousands of young people have walked through its doors, spanning several generations. As users of the building for the last seven years, the team at St John’s Church want to ensure the building stays open and remains as a safe place for youngsters to go to.”

St John’s Church will be putting up a marquee at the festival, so local people can come along and share their views on the future of the youth centre, and what services they would like to see provided there.

Peasedown Councillors, Sarah Bevan and Karen Walker, who have been campaigning to keep the youth centre open since the council’s announcement, said: “We welcome the Expression of Interest from St John’s Church to manage and run the youth centre. We set out at the beginning of 2017 to save the building from closure and ensure another provider was found that would continue to offer open-access youth work to teenagers. We would like to encourage anyone and everyone to come along to Party in the Park on Saturday, 9th June to share their views at the St John’s Church marquee.”

Party in the Park will be held from 12 noon – 7 p.m. at Beacon Field, Peasedown St John.