YOUTH SERVICE: Hartlepool to get youth advice centre

As well as providing an internet cafe and recreational area, young people are to be given advice by the police and agencies such as Connexions.

The 1.2 million project is a partnership between Millennium Volunteers, the Government initiative to get people aged 16 to 25 into voluntary work, and the Hartlepool Voluntary Development Agency.

It has been funded for six years by the regeneration initiative Hartlepool New Deal For Communities. Although a property is still being sought, the centre should be open by the summer.

Peter Gowland, project officer at the agency, said that the new centre could provide counselling for young people.

"Hartelpool has drug and teenage pregnancy problems," said Gowland. "It's about giving young people a chance to do things and another start."

The establishment of the centre follows the creation of a similar youth centre in north Hartlepool at the beginning of 2002, called the Abbey Street Project.

The centre, set up by Hartlepool's training and leisure agency Headland Future, received a 441,500 grant from the Community Fund in 2001.