Utass considers expanding youth club boundary

AN open evening is to be held at an upper dale youth club to see if there is any interest in widening its catchment area.
Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services (Utass), in Middleton-in-Teesdale, operates a Thursday night youth club, bussing in youngsters from further up the dale.
Utass has now taken delivery of a second minibus, a ten-seater, courtesy of the Department of Transport’s community transport scheme, and officials are keen to offer other children from isolated communities a ticket to ride to the youth club.
Diane Spark, Utass project manager, said: “The idea would be to run one minibus up the dale as we do now, and the other one over to Mickleton, Lunedale and those sort of areas.
“We want to see if there is any interest,” she said.
“Would young people use such a service? Would parents be supportive?
“Is there an unmet need in that part of Teesdale that we can meet?” she asked.
The Thursday night youth club caters for children aged eight to 18.
Currently, the bus leaves Utass at 5pm and heads up the dale beyond Langdon Beck to pick up the youngsters.
During light nights, there are two runs home – one at about 7.30pm for the younger children and a later trip for the teenagers.
Pool, darts, various crafts, arcade machines, basketball, netball and computers are among the facilities available at the youth club, however, many use the night simply as a chance to meet up and hang out with their friends.
Both buses are operated by volunteer drivers and chaperones, while youth sessions have a team of children and young people’s support workers on hand.
Ms Spark said Utass had a good pool of volunteer drivers and chaperones, but would welcome more if the second youth club bus was to hit the road.
“You can never have enough volunteer drivers and chaperones. During periods such as lambing we struggle because a lot of our volunteers farm as well,” she said.
“With two buses running, we would need four people on a Thursday night.”
The open evening is due to take place on Thursday, January 19, from 6pm to 7pm.
In the meantime, anyone interested in plans to extend the youth club’s reach to Mickleton, Lunedale and other areas, or who would like more information on volunteering as a driver or chaperone can email Ms Spark at diane @utass.org or call 01833 641010.