Newport councillors apply for £30,000 grant to give The Hub youth club and café 'the best possible chance'
Councillors want to put an extra £10,000 of Newport council tax payers money into a youth club and café project to secure its future.
The Newport Youth Café Project (The Hub) is a charity of which Newport town councillors are the sole trustees.
The town council put £19,400 into the project’s budget for 2025-26.
At a meeting last Wednesday (October 29) councillors on the project committee decided to apply to the full town council for a grant of £30,000 for next year. The full town council will have to agree to the request.
The loss-making project’s total spending for next year has been estimated at some £112,000, with an estimated income of £107,000.
Officials are planning to raise £50,000 in grants, including from donations from local businesses.
Town clerk Jo Reay told the committee that the Hub project is “showing a loss” if the full town council gave a grant of £25,000 or £30,000.
“But that is not taking account of other grants coming our way,” she said.
The committee was told that the café is forecast to make £72,000 this year and it has been budgeted to make less.
“We are hoping that with the new ideas we will bring more people in,” the clerk said.
The committee members said they were pleased with what has been happening at the club, including having 36 young people graduating from its Pathways work experience scheme. The Hub is also used as a base for some 21 local clubs and organisations.
A new youth committee has also been set up and given a budget of £500 to include club users in the decision-making process.
Sixteen-year-old Newport Girls’ High School student Eleanor Lall was at the meeting to tell councillors about the first two meetings of the new group.
Councillor Bill Harper (West Ward), the town’s deputy mayor, said a bigger town council grant would help the project keep up its success.
“We have had really good engagement which just gets better with youth on the committee.
“It needs a grant to allow it to grow, to secure the future.
“I believe that the town council can afford it.
“This would be a safety net which allows us to move forward.”
The committee heard that it has been five years since the council took over as trustees of the registered charity but only two years since the operation was “restructured”.
The three councillors present at the meeting agreed that a grant of £30,000 would give the project the “best possible chance".
Newport Town Council this year asked taxpayers in the town to pay £658,000 in their council tax bills for its services. It worked out as a band D council tax equivalent of £148.11 per annum, an increase of 4.02 per cent or £5.73.
The committee’s application for the grant will have to be discussed and agreed by the full town council as a part of its budget setting process.
The council’s next meeting is scheduled for November 12 at The Hub from 7pm.