Council in bid for teenage recreation cash aid (From Gazette & Herald)

Council in bid for teenage recreation cash aid

YOUNG people in Ryedale could be given recreation facilities of their own if a massive grant bid is successful.

Ryedale District Council is to bid for £85,000 to be spent on a teenage recreation network throughout the district.

Tens of thousands of pounds will be split between towns and larger villages where access to leisure facilities is limited.

All five market towns could be in line for a cash injection, and Sheriff Hutton and Thornton-le-Dale may also be in the running for money to spend.

Jos Holmes, of Ryedale District Council, said the bid would form part of a huge £180,000 project to create a network of facilities for teenagers in Ryedale.

"We already have a good skate park in Malton and Norton, but we are looking at other individual things like youth shelters, skate parks elsewhere, basketball type areas and things like that," she said.

Cash could also come from European funding and the district council coffers.

But Mrs Holmes stressed this was not a district council project.

"The facilities are not going to be owned and managed by us, but by the community," she said.

"It's very much up to local communities to come to us and say they are interested.

"It is early days at the moment, we are just trying to gauge interest and see where the communities want the facilities."

Sport England will come up with the £85,000 if the district council bid is successful.

"We are really pleased because at this early stage only three projects in the Yorkshire and Humber region have been chosen to put in bids," said Mrs Holmes.

"I think we are the only rural project."

She added: "It's up to the communities if they really want it - and we will work together to achieve it."

Updated: 12:15 Friday, January 03, 2003