The boss of the Base 51 charity says that it would be "devastating" if the group has to leave its city centre premises due to council cuts. The youth group currently faces closure or relocation after Nottingham City Council withdrew all of its financial support from the charity.
It was previously reported in 2021 that Nottingham City Council would cease its funding at the end of that financial year, leaving the charity £360,000 short of the funding agreed over the next two years. But now the funding has been cut, the charity is facing an uncertain future and bosses have rued the potential impact if they have have to leave their building which is home to an array of important facilities.
Peter Morley, chair of the Board of Trustees, said: “It is devastating to be considering leaving the amazing NGY building, which has been a safe place for the city’s young people for just over 10 years. This would result in the removal of fabulous facilities for young people, including a gym, recording studio, dance studio, café and a counselling suite; all in a beautiful state-of-the-art building.
"It would be a travesty for all of this to be lost if the reason is that the council is seeking to sell the facility to cover the holes in its finances. Whilst the council has offered vague assurance that this is not the case, the council would not be able to continue to provide access for young people to the facilities, without an annual investment of revenue.
"In that case, the council has always expressed its satisfaction with Base 51’s provision at NGY, so I cannot understand why they would not continue to fund Base 51 to go on with that provision.”
The charity is currently based on Castle Gate, Nottingham, in premises that the city council purchased with a government grant for the group to use. Base 51 has occupied since 2012 after the council agreed to lease the building to the charity to run its services from for 20 years.
It was announced in 2021 that Base 51, which has been offering support to 11-25 year olds across the county for almost 30 years, would face cuts of £360,000 from the council, but now it is left without any funding at all. The charity had been securing funding through the 'MyPlace' programme, which was launched in 2008 when the Government awarded grants of between £1m and £5m to councils for the development of world-class youth centres in some of the most deprived areas of England.
From 2012 for four years the charity received £1.6m in council funding, but without council funding it cost the charity a total of £634,645 to run in 2021/22. It costs Base 51 around £200,000 each year alone to run the building, but the charity also has to put £40,000 aside each year into a 'sinking fund' for repairs.
The charity claim they were assured in May 2022 that Base 51 would be able to access the £150,000 fund, as it was hoped that this money could be used to cover the increasing building bills and upkeep, but now the charity fear they may not be able to access the fund for these purposes which could lead to the closure or relocation of their services as they cannot afford the current overheads.
It has been reported that there are more than 17,500 children living in poverty in Nottingham, with some of the city's wards ranking in the top ten percent for most deprived areas in the country, and Nottingham itself ranking as the sixth worse out of 340 areas on the ONS Health Index.
The charity is running a Crowdfunder to help with the costs. The charity’s chief executive Jo Jepson said: "Due to insurmountable financial challenges imposed on us by Nottingham City Council Base 51 may need to secure other premises, our priority at this time is to continue to offer a safe place for some of the city’s most vulnerable young people, whilst our charity continues to deliver the high quality provision we’ve been known for over the past 30 years. We hope that over the coming weeks we can find a positive solution and a way forwards, so that we can ensure that young people have somewhere to go and someone to talk to, in times of crisis and need."
The building on Castle Gate is also home to Take One School, which is an alternative provision school for young people aged 14 – 16 who are no longer in mainstream education and are looking to gain fundamental qualifications, and the Youth Justice Service which supervises those referred by the court or police on a statutory basis, or those that have been referred to work with early intervention services on a voluntary basis.
A Nottingham City Council spokesperson said: “Base 51 provides valuable services to young people in our city, alongside other providers of youth services. We are due to meet Base 51 representatives this week to explore options for their continued operations in the city, as part of our ongoing support for the organisation to become self-sustaining.
“Like all councils, the City Council has been receiving less and less in Government grants over the past 13 years to pay for local services, which has forced us to cut services that we would prefer not to. Last year we undertook savings in our own Play and Youth services, and the decision to cease funding Base 51 was taken in this context as the grant from the council was no longer sustainable.
“As part of Base 51’s lease agreement, the ‘sinking fund’ is in place for the upkeep of the property – a listed building - rather than to cover any operating losses.”
Base 51 prides itself on being a safe place for young people in need, focusing on early intervention, counselling, specialist trauma support, a LGBTQIA+ peer support group and a youth club with a dance studio and a music recording studio. The centre also provides practical support with a kitchen, food parcels, gym, showers, laundry and a clothes bank and from October to December 2022, the charity provided over 400 meals to young people that visited their centre.
Money can be donated to the fundraising page by clicking here.
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