A POPULAR Worcester youth club created to help reduce anti-social behaviour will not be reinstated, the city council has confirmed.

Councillor Francis Lankester, cabinet member for safer and stronger communities, said the evidence "does not show" that the Cellar Project worked.

He also said it would be "impossible" to find the staff to restart the project, and that it would not be cost-effective.

As the Worcester News reported on Tuesday, opposition councillors have called for the Cellar Project to be restarted by using an £84,000 windfall grant from the Government.

The project was based on music nights once or twice a month, and attracted up to 200 13-17 year-olds a time when it ran in 2003.

Coun Lankester turned up at the Guildhall suffering from a heavy cold to defend the decision. Coun Lankester said: "You can play all kinds of games with figures, but one of the issues is the cost, and we think that if this is to be effective in reducing anti-social behaviour, it would have to run every week, not every month.

"There are benefits to the Cellar Project, but it does require a high staff to young person ratio, and in 2003 a number of staff were not prepared to commit to every session.

"As the nights became more popular, police were also concerned how young people got home after the event.

"It also became increasingly difficult to identify if the Cellar Project was purely responsible for reducing anti-social behaviou. Also, it was not cost- effective."

The verdict is a blow for Labour councillors at the Guildhall, who wanted to see the Cellar Project re-introduced in Worcester.

The costs of running the project is about £1,000 a night, for essentially a young person's disco.

The council was given £84,000 as a bonus grant by the Government in February and is under pressure to spend it.

Coun Geoff Williams, from the Labour Party, said: "I agree that it is difficult to say exactly what contribution it made to reducing anti-social behaviour, but that assumes this is the only aim of the project.

"There are clearly other benefits, like providing an activity for people to do and informal education."

The city council cabinet has now formally endorsed a report stating the Cellar Project should not be re-introduced in Worcester.