Fight for Bognor Regis youth clubs continues with launch of online petition

Club 39 is not much bigger than a studio apartment.

The youth club, on Church Path, has no proper toilets, no real kitchen, and only just enough room for two computers and a snooker table. Staff regularly feel that there’s only so much they can do to keep their handful of regulars entertained.

And, as if to add insult to injury, the club is attached to a purpose-built facility staff cannot use.

That facility, complete with toilets and a fully-equipped kitchen, used to be the Find It Out centre, which provided careers advice and support to young people throughout Bognor Regis.

It was closed alongside The Phoenix Centre, on Westloats Lane in November last year, when West Sussex County Council decided both services were surplus to requirements.

Now that the council has opened both centres to expressions of interest, Sussex Clubs for Young People – the charity behind Club 39 – is joining forces with other Bognor Regis organisations, to restore youth provision, and they’re making their voices heard with an online petition.

“The council only ask for 50 signatures and we’ve exceeded that already,” explained Sussex Clubs for Young People CEO Chris Cook.

“It just gives strength to our case for why there’s a need for youth provision in Bognor.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Heike Rentel, a youth worker at Club 39. Though their resources are limited, she said, Club 39 provides a much-needed service for an underserved community.

“If we get what we’re asking for, we’ll have the whole building,” she said.

“I’ll be able to run daytime education and homework clubs and we’ll have space for art and music groups.”

If the petition doesn’t work, however, Ms Rentel said the outlook is gloomy: “If we don’t get this and they throw us out of here, then it really is all over. Because there’s nothing left.”

A spokesperson for West Sussex County Council added: “We also want to see the Phoenix Centre and the Bognor Youth Centre continue as facilitates for Bognor’s young people, which is why we are seeking expressions of interest from local community and youth organisations to run both buildings in the town.

“We’re really pleased that Sussex Clubs for Young People are preparing to bid and we will be reviewing their application when we receive it. Groups have until Tuesday, 8 February to express their interest in these Bognor facilities as well as the Park Centre in Burgess Hill.”

To express interest in either facility, click here.

Click here to access the petition.

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