W
L
BUILDING WIRRAL’S FUTURE
A ‘HIVE’ OF ACTIVITY
After years of hard work from national charity OnSide
Youth Zones shaking hands with Wirral Council, the
spade hitting the ground back in December 2015, to
the dramatic countdown of building milestones, Wirral
Youth Zone has come a long way.
OnSide Youth Zones, the national umbrella charity whose
aim is to build a network of 21st Century Youth Clubs,
giving young people, safe and inspiring places to go in
their leisure time were the driving force behind Wirral’s
£6m Youth Zone in Bright Street, Birkenhead. It all
started to take shape back in 2012 with a commitment
from Wirral Council to build an OnSide Youth Zone
in Wirral. That was followed by a meeting with OnSide
representatives, Wirral Council and John Syvret CBE –
the Chief Executive of Cammell Laird - at Wallasey Town
Hall in October 2013. The idea was to approach John to
Chair the project – one which we all know he grasped
with both hands.
Identifying a site for the build of the Youth Zone was
the next key challenge. As with any OnSide Youth
Zone, it must be accessible by public transport and
centrally located within an area of deprivation in terms
of opportunities available young people. A site was
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found and agreed next to the fire station in the centre of
Birkenhead in which the Fire Service generously donated
part of their land to work in partnership to build the
OnSide Youth Zone.
OnSide’s Youth Work team then recruited a ‘Young
People’s Development Group’ who were made up of young
people from partnering youth organisations across Wirral.
This group worked to engage with over 300 young people
in creating ‘The Hive’ as the official name for Wirral Youth
Zone. The young people believed that ‘The Hive’ would
represent a ‘hive’ of activity within Wirral and this group
of young ambassadors for the project would grow and go
on to play a key role in everything from, the design and
colour scheme of their Youth Zone to even interviewing
staff members and performing a rap video with football
legend John Barnes!
Once all the planning applications had been agreed with
Wirral Council back in July 2015 and the architects
designs were approved (with young people of course) the
£6m capital funding was confirmed. Funding from Wirral
Council, Bibby Line Group, The Johnson Foundation,
Lord Leverhulme’s Charitable Trust, Garfield Weston
Foundation, UBS, Linbury Trust, OnSide, The Queen’s