A POPULAR Ryedale youth club is facing closure thanks to mindless vandalism by yobs.

Rillington Parish Council has banished the village's youth club from using its sports pavilion after vandals set fire to a children's roundabout, broke a window, left litter and damaged an electrics box.

Chairman of the council, Sue Butler, said that, although the youth club wasn't directly responsible, it was the youths of the village who were causing the damage.

"I suppose it's a form of punishment," she said. "If you don't respect it out of hours, we're not going to let you use it within youth club hours."

She said the problem had arisen at the newly-refurbished pavilion since the warmer weather and lighter nights began.

"We have replaced the broken windows with shatter proof glass and they tried to set it alight," she said. "The door of the outside electrics box was removed, which is very dangerous, and there are bottles and cans left strewn about."

Some parish councillors have spoken to youths, and the council is liaising with community police officer for Rillington and the Wolds, Andy Grant, about tackling the problem.

But youth club leader Vince Dempsey says it's unfair that the club may have to close without the free facility.

"I don't believe it's any of the youth club," he said. "We have been through a few generations, and at the moment we have a new intake of 11, 12 and 13-year-olds to cater for. It is somewhat unfortunate that they seem to be punishing the younger kids. I don't think it's entirely sensible to punish all children for the damage caused by an older few who hang out there drinking at night time."

Last winter, the club moved to the village hall because there were more facilities, but they had to pay for it, using children's entry fees which would otherwise be used for trips and activities. Even then it struggled to cover the cost of hiring the hall.

"I can't afford to pay for the village hall so it really means we can't carry on, and that's just going to make the problem worse," added Mr Dempsey. "I have provided this service for several years without much support from the parish council - that's just gone down to no support.

"If they withdraw the pavilion we probably wouldn't carry on. I'd want to try and find a way but right now the maths just doesn't add up."

The pavilion is also used by the village's football club, which begins its season shortly.

PC Andy Grant said that an investigation into the roundabout blaze was on-going. He added: "There is a hut in the recreation ground for the older kids and as far as I'm concerned that's their space and that's fine.

"However, recently there seem to have been visits from kids in vehicles from out of town, and the behaviour down there has got worse."

He said that he would like to see the parish council place a lockable barrier at the recreation ground to stop youths hanging round there late at night, and also provide a substantial metal litter bin for them to put their drinks cans in.

He added: "I think we've got to look at a positive way of dealing with it. I have been enforcing an informal curfew on them being up there after 10pm, because neighbours complained about disturbance, which is just a bit of commonsense and respect.

"I also had some kids clearing up litter there the other day - I took some bin bags up there and they did it of their own volition."

He added that the youth club was very poorly funded and relied on volunteers for the village, and that he understood their concerns about the cost of using the village hall.

"It's a difficult situation," he said. "I have made enquiries to the community safety partnership Safer Ryedale about getting some funding to help Mr Dempsey with either equipment or running costs."