A BURNHAM youth club has been thrown a lifeline after it received nearly £5,000 in council grants.

The Zone Youth Club, which is based in the Bay Centre in Cassis Close, was awarded a £3,445 grant from Somerset County, as well as an additional £1,500 from Burnham and Highbridge town council.

And one of the youth club's organisers has said that without grants the club would cease to exist.

Stephen Baker, from Somerset Rural Youth Project, said: "It means we can keep running. The county council gave the grant to the town council who have then added £1,500 into the pot.

"It is a town youth club that the council set up and then we (SRYP) run it. Without the money put in by them we would not be able to keep it going.

"The council grant pays for a part time member of staff seven hours a week and an apprentice. We have quite a few younger volunteers working together but we could not run this without the paid member of staff.

"Having the volunteers mean that the young people have that sense of ownership.

"The county council grant covers costs of staffing and the town council grant pays for the resources."

Eleven Somerset youth clubs have shared nearly £30,000 in grants from Somerset County Council to help run their sessions.

The grants from the County Council are being matched by nearly £19,000 in locally-raised funding and hundreds of hours of volunteers’ time – all for the benefit of Somerset’s young people.

Cllr Frances Nicholson, cabinet member for children and families at Somerset County Council, said: “Somerset youth clubs do immensely valuable work and I’m really pleased we have been able to offer them some support through grant funding.

“This will be an added boost to the continued hard work of numerous local volunteers and fundraisers who help these youth clubs to thrive.”

The Zone Youth club is for children aged 11 and older and runs from 3.30pm until 5.30pm on Tuesdays.

Young people can do cooking, dancing, play on games consoles, do karaoke, crafts, art, sports and more.