State of the art £150k youth club opens in Penmaenmawr

Jun 17 2010 by Rayyan Parry, North Wales Weekly News

EXCITED youngsters have flocked for the opening of Penmaenmawr’s brand new youth club.

The revamped club opened its doors last week after a £250,000 revamp.

Over 60 youths were at the opening to test out the new centre. The new features include four of the latest state of the art computers.

At the back of the building is a games room with a built-in Nintendo Wii and an Xbox.

Upstairs is a chill-out room with a flat screen TV, a pool table and table tennis.

There’s also a modern kitchen to provide cooking skills to the youngsters. Youth Services practitioner for Conwy Council Petra Crossman-Emms, who opened the centre, said: “The opening was absolutely brilliant.

“The young people in Penmaenmawr have been without a youth club for quite a long time.”

The new centre will provide key interviewing skills for older youths as well as health advice.

One mother, whose child attended the opening, said: “I think it’s excellent that it’s open at last for the youth in Penmaenmawr, because there’s nothing here for them, they just hang around Spar.

“I have four teenagers, and one of them went the other day. She thought it was wonderful, she can’t wait to go again next week. She thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Mayor of Penmaenmawr Harry Jones said: “The youth club and the facilities it provides are wonderful and a much needed service that provides a safe and controlled place for the youth of today to meet and participate in games and events.

“Being young these days is not as easy as it was in my day, with such threats of illegal substances, physical violence and of course cheap and easily available alcohol luring our young ones to depths of despair.

“This facility gives them hope for the future and an opportunity for them to meet safely with their friends and just be young people once again.

“In the light of so many cutbacks in public expenditure, I am more than encouraged that Conwy Council feels good to invest in our youth and provide this facility for them in the town, and I thank the organisers and officers of Conwy for their foresight.”

The youth club will be open on Tuesdays from 6.30pm-8.30pm for 11- to 14-year-olds and Thursdays from 7pm-9pm for the over-14s.