Blackburn with Darwen Council award £2.4m contract for youth centre redevelopments

Blackburn with Darwen Council has awarded a Bolton-based construction firm a large building contract for two youth hubs redevelopments in the borough.

Seddon Construction, who operate out of Farnworth, stood out as the best option to take on the £2.4m contract to revamp both Audley and Queen’s Children’s Centre and Darwen Youth Centre.

Financed by grants from the government's Youth Investment Fund (YIF), the total cost of the two projects is expected to be £4.58m. 

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The choice of Seddon Construction as the contractor has been made in a delegated decision by Martin Kelly, the council’s strategic director of growth and development.

A report published by Martin Kelly: "Established in August 2022, the YIF is a £300m national pot of grant funding awarded by the government.

"The aim of the fund is to provide significant funding opportunities for the out-of-school youth sector in Levelling Up priority areas, including Blackburn with Darwen.

"The YIF is designed to enable the improvement and/or renovation of existing youth facilities or provide direct funding to support the construction of new facilities.

After the introduction of the YIF, the council began submitting projects for investment and  Audley and Queen’s Park Children Centre and Darwen Youth Centre were progressed for support.

In January 2023, the council submitted a bid for both of its facilities and were told that it had been successful and a total grant of £4,583,074 had been awarded.

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The reports said: "The bid for works falls within the funding envelope for this programme which was presented and approved by the Executive Board on December 7, 2023.

"This budget will need to cover the Phase 2 Construction costs estimated to be £2.4m, spend incurred to date of £235,000, and all future other costs associated with this scheme."

£3.3m of YIF investment will be used to transform Darwen Youth Centre which will double in size over the next year.

The building located on Knott Street will have new state-of-the-art facilities added including; a new creative workshop space, a recording and DJ studio, a gaming zone and multi-use spaces as well as upgraded outdoor sports facilities.

Another £1m will be spent to transform Audley and Queen’s Park Children’s Centre into a seven-days-a-week youth hub offering specialist mental health, employability and rehabilitation support.

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