Award helps youth work in the town

The money for Number 18 has come from the Lloyds Bank community fund.

The bank allocates the cash in response to votes from the public to enable various causes to continue doing good work.

Number 18 provides a drop-in café, health, information and advice sessions for young people aged 13-25 at its Waterloo Square base.

Chairman Jan Cosgrove said: “Our work is both more traditional in that kids can just walk in and fit in and more radical in that we are looking at new ways to reach them. I am very proud of our new online information service which we pioneered on our own.”

The project has increased its opening hours to 3.30pm-6.30pm Mondays to Saturdays, plus two sessions a week for under-25 parents, from 11am-1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

A music space has been set up and guitar tuition is available. One-to-one counselling can also be arranged.