AN impassioned plea for money to be spent on providing facilities for the young people of Amesbury was made by a town councillor last week.

Deputy mayor of Amesbury Jan Swindlehurst told the March meeting of the town council that any money spent on keeping bored youngsters off street corners and reducing temptations to vandalism and antisocial behaviour would be money well spent.

Mrs Swindlehurst was commenting on a report by Councillor Larry Evenett on the second meeting of the recently formed Amesbury Youth Forum, a working group made up of councillors, young people and various organisations in the town.

Mr Evenett had reported that the young people had drawn up a shopping list of things they would like to have, so that the forum was aware of what young people wanted and where the facilities should go and potential funding could be explored.

Mr Evenett warned that some of the things on the wish list would not come cheap.

Mrs Swindlehurst said: "Whatever it costs, in the long term, it will be worth every penny.

"These young people are our future town councillors and we should look after them.

"It has to be worth the cost and effort to keep them off the streets and give them something to do that will reduce antisocial behaviour and vandalism."

A word of caution came from Councillor Fred Westmoreland, who said there would always be an element for whom nothing could be done to stop them causing problems.

Mayor of Amesbury Allan Peach said the majority of the town's young people were keen to take advantage of facilities and this was proved by figures from Amesbury sports centre where, last year, more than 27,000 young males under 18 and more than 20,000 females under 18 passed through the centre's doors.

Among ideas suggested was making better use of the town's tennis courts by converting them into multi-use courts suitable for other ball games.

Requests for youth shelters where young people can congregate would also be looked at.

Mr Evenett said it could be two years before the huge new residential estates around Boscombe Down and Butterfield Down would get community facilities and something had to be done in the interim.

Earlier in the meeting, councillors decided to take a second look at attracting a mobile skateboard park to Amesbury, after they heard the original cost of around £8,000 had shot up to £28,000.

There was good news from Amesbury's police chief, Inspector Tim Richards, who said that, since the introduction of the no-drinking zones, there had been a marked reduction in antisocial behaviour and vandalism.