Mystery donor’s £6m gift to build youth zone
A £6M youth centre is to be built in Gorton – thanks to a mystery benefactor.
The East Manchester Youth Zone will be created on the former Gorton baths site at the corner of Hyde Road and Queensland Road.
It is expected to attract up to 3,000 children and teenagers a year.
As well as providing the land for free and putting in £1.2m of capital funding, Manchester council is to contribute towards the running costs of the hub, which will be run by charity OnSide.
But the £6m build cost is coming from an unnamed philanthropist, according to a report going before council bosses next week.
OnSide already runs the successful Factory Youth Zone in Harpurhey, which has been credited with helping to cut truancy rates and boost the confidence - and school results - of the hundreds of youngsters who use it. It attracts up to 200 youngsters every evening and is thought to have helped cut antisocial behaviour and other lowlevel crime in the area.
The charity approached Manchester council earlier this year with a proposal for a sister centre in Gorton, having been approached by a private ‘philanthropist’ who wanted to specifically fund an ‘exemplar facility for young people in disadvantaged parts of the city.’
With Manchester already having youth centres in Harpurhey, Moss Side and Wythenshawe, the council decided to look in the east of the city for an easily accessible and safe council-owned site - eventually settling on the Hyde Road location.
Manchester will hand over the land on a 125-year lease at a peppercorn rent and will also pay up to £300,000 for any remediation work needed. The council is also putting £1.2m capital funding into the project, as well as a fifth of the centre’s running costs up until 2023.
OnSide is expected to bring in private donations to help towards the rest of the ongoing costs, in line with its model elsewhere.
Executive member for schools, culture and leisure, Coun Luthfur Rahman, said: “Building on the success of the Factory Youth Zone, the proposed new Youth Zone for Gorton has the potential to help young people from across central and east Manchester as they develop into adulthood, providing a world-class facility where quality educational and recreational opportunities will be available to them seven days a week.
“Making this investment in the future of our young people will strengthen the regeneration of east Manchester, while providing young Mancunians with new opportunities to express themselves creatively, raise their aspirations and develop their talents.”