Onchan MHK Peter Karran has called a public meeting tonight (Thursday) in a bid to save Kenyon’s youth cafe and drop-in centre.
Onchan Commissioners want to sell the premises - which they purchased from Mr Karran back in 2005 - and provide better facilities elsewhere.
But the Liberal Vannin leader, who is a trustee of the charity that runs Kenyon’s, is planning to launch a campaign to raise £100,000 needed to buy the building back and secure the centre’s future on the Main Road site.
He has organised a meeting at Kenyon’s tonight (Thursday), starting at 7.30pm, and says he had already written to the Lottery Trust in the hope of securing funding.
The Department of Education and Children youth service runs three evening sessions per week at the facility.
Head of the youth service Ken Callister believes the commissioners’ decision is a ‘mistake’ and will lead to more youths wandering round the streets.
Commissioners’ clerk Malcolm Hulme, who says he will attend tonight’s meeting, said: ‘The commissioners have resolved they want to sell the property but no date has been put on that. We want to provide better premises. At the moment the building still has big costs outstanding plus the cost of repairs and maintenance.’
The trust is charged a peppercorn rent of £100 a year.
Commissioners are looking to see if they can develop the existing youth and community centre in School Road.