WROUGHTON’s youth club re-opened on Wednesday nearly five months after it was forced to shut down.

The club shut in November last year after the Swindon Council youth worker was recalled without replacement.

But now the club, at the sports pavilion in Maunsell Way, has re-opened, thanks to the hard work of residents Chris Manning and Hazel Hodd, who volunteered to take on the project under the control of the parish council.

Former councillor Chris Manning said: “The re-opening went really well. We had about 20 children along during the evening.

“They can play pool and they can have refreshments but we aren’t putting on any organised activities.

“We’re really trying to provide somewhere safe and secure for the children to meet up.

“If they have some ideas and suggestions of things they want to do we might be able to do that in the future.

“Wroughton has a population of 8,500 and when the youth club closed I felt that if we didn’t do something to keep this club going there would be nothing on for the youth of Wroughton.

“What I would like now is to encourage volunteers to help.”

The club will run every Wednesday evening between 6pm and 8.30pm.