Youth & Family Centre

Infrastructure: To support replacement of lost Phoenix Youth Centre
Lead: Cllr Steve Clarke
Lead Officer: Louise Beardmore

What is proposed?
A new Youth & Family Centre to provide wide-ranging services for young people, families and community.

Where are we now?
A site has been purchased by New Milton Town Council, from Double H, for £100,000. It was agreed at a Town Council meeting on 28 June 2021 that this land should be purchased subject to outline planning permission being granted. The Town Council is awaiting re-assignment of the land, currently designated as green belt, for development for community uses. Positive feedback was received from New Forest District Council on the Pre-Application and an Outline Planning Application was submitted with a decision made in December 2022. A working group is being set up by the Town Council that will comprise New Milton residents, representatives of the Youth Trust, among others, to progress the project.

New Milton Youth Trust has been set up with a view to taking on the project, in collaboration with Town Council.

Partners & stakeholders
New Milton Town Council
New Milton Youth Trust
SpudWorks

Surveys, consultations
SpudWorks led a series of workshops with 50 young people aged 11-21 to inform the brief for the project. Many of the issues that concerned the young people related to social spaces, cooking facilities and the layout of different spaces to accommodate a variety of needs without feeling isolated. They thought it very important to consider how aesthetics of a space makes you feel and how that directly translates into how popular the youth centre will be.

Surveys and consultations will be led by New Milton Youth Trust but register at subscribe@newmiltontc.org.uk for alerts.