TRADERS, parish councillors and residents need to get together to help the young people of Broadway, according to youth leader Betty Phillips.

Betty, who is a village chemist dispenser, runs a youth club three nights a week. She says the prefabricated building where the children meet off Leamington Road is inadequate and the activities on offer are woefully limited.

"There are good kids in Broadway who deserve better," she told the Journal.

Betty heartily backs the provision of a skate board facility, but says there is no space outside the youth club, based off Leamington Road, to install one. And she would like to see a purpose-built youth club on the recreation ground with skate boarding facilities for teenagers.

"There are a smashing lot of kids in Broadway who are frustrated.

"We have 60 on our books who come regularly from five upwards, but we have very little to offer the older teenagers.

"Residents and traders criticise their behaviour - they see them as yobs and are always telling them to clear off, instead they should be helping to solve the problems."

At a parish council meeting last Thursday members discussed the appeals by young villagers for a skate board area. They said a skate park could cost in the region of £30,000 and that the parish council did not have the resources to supply one.

Councillor Richard Prater said: "Nothing will get done unless someone comes forward to co-ordinate a proper plan, in the meantime we have a problem in the shopping precinct, on the Lifford Hall steps and around other buildings in the village with skate boarders."

The parish council decided to write to the youth club's leaders to find out whether they would be willing to take on a project which would involve drawing up a feasibility study, raising funds, and applying for community grants.