Yorkshire and Lincolnshire youth centres boosted by £15m funding

Seven youth centres in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire have been allocated funding

Seven youth centres in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are to share more than £15m in government grants to renovate and build facilities.

A state-of-the-art centre with a music studio and skate park in Grimsby town centre and a woodland activity club in Sheffield are among the recipients of money from the Youth Investment Fund.

Charities in Hull, Lincoln and Cleethorpes also secured grants.

The funding is aimed at England's "most underserved areas", ministers said.

Forty-three youth centres across the country have been allocated a share of £90m, the government announced on Monday as part of a plan to crack down on anti-social behaviour.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it would create one million extra hours of youth services in anti-social behaviour hotspots.

'Develop vital life skills'

Endeavour Centre, a charity in Burngreave, Sheffield which works with young people to encourage engagement in social action will receive more than £1.1m from the fund.

Chief executive Ed Thatcher told the BBC the money would help it open six nights a week instead of one, as well as improve facilities for disabled users and install a sound-proof music room.

He said "many members of the local community around here are really enthusiastic musicians" who "are just playing their instruments on the street late at night" due to a lack of facilities.

"Hopefully by opening a music room up here young people will be able to come away from the streets and do that up here in a creative and supported way that is wholly positive," Mr Thatcher told the BBC.

The government has also awarded nearly £8m to fund the construction of Horizon Youth Zone, a centre in Grimsby with which offer sports including boxing and martial arts, a climbing wall, an outdoor 3D pitch, a music studio and a radio booth.

The Trin Centre, in Cleethorpes, will receive £2.6m to fund programmes to introduce young people to sports, while the Fusion Centre in Grimsby will receive £1.4m for activities including music production and cookery.

Culture secretary Lucy Frazer said: I want every young person to have the opportunity to access the kinds of life-changing activities which expand their horizons and allow them to develop vital life skills."

The groups getting funding in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are:

• The Fusion Centre, Grimsby - £1.4m

• Endeavour Centre, Sheffield - £1.1m

• The Vulcan Centre, Hull - £850,000

• Whiteley Woods Outdoor Activities Centre - £455,000

• Horizon Youth Zone, Grimsby - £7.9m

• The Trin Centre, Cleethorpes - £2.6m

• Lincoln City Foundation - £800,000