CRICKLADE will not be left out when it comes to the provision of youth workers, town councillors have been promised.

The pledge was made as Wiltshire Council this week agreed to award £11,500 to continue providing Connecting Youth workers in Royal Wootton Bassett and Lyneham.

The bid by social enterprise company Gloucestershire Mentoring And Support was accepted by the area board.

But its chairman Coun Allison Bucknell said there was no intention of leaving Cricklade out.

However, negotiations were still going on and there were still decisions to be made about what was going to happen in the town.

“We intend Cricklade to have something as well once it has been designed,” she said.

“We were quoted for a much larger project but because of our procurement rules we were not allowed to continue.”

She hoped the authority would be in a position to make a decision at the next area board meeting in May.

Six months ago the board agreed to provide a £545 grant to Connecting Youth workers Jude Deaman and Jess Ovens to help tackle anti-social behaviour in Cricklade by doing street youth work in areas where youngsters were known to gather.

It was a six-week programme intended to find out what was needed to divert teenagers from causing trouble and it came after a series of incidents, including fires being set in dugouts at Cricklade AFC, the theft of goal fittings and residents in a sheltered housing complex making complaints about noise in the area.

Fellow Wiltshire councillor Bob Jones said: “We started off having two youth workers there and now we have come to an abrupt halt.”

He pressed for the issue to be brought back to the next meeting in May.

GMAS managing director Ben Evans said his organisation, which was started three years ago and operated in 11 different locations in Gloucestershire, had been approached by Connecting Youth six months ago seeking back up.

The scheme in Royal Wootton Bassett and Lyneham started in 2014 as a 12-week after school club project with the help of the vicar.

Both youth workers were later made redundant when Wiltshire Council shut down its youth development services.

But it was found that youths were gathering in Royal Wootton Bassett and Lyneham in groups of up to 30 and residents were complaining about the noise they made.