A YOUTH club in Northwich lost out on government funding to build a brand new building because some of the kids it serves aren't quite poor enough.

Winnington Youth Club provides services to young people from Leftwich and Witton, as well as to those in Winnington.

But as Winnington is deemed too well-off in the criteria for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's Youth Investment Fund (YIF), the club was not able to claim a share of the massive £560m pot. 

And despite appealing to the then-culture minister, former Sir John Deane’s student Michelle Donelan, the club was told the criteria could not be changed.

Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWAC) lead member for children and families, Cllr Bob Cernik, who wrote to Ms Donelan over the issue, said: “It’s a classical example of the dead hand of Whitehall bureaucracy knowing better than local councillors.

“The PCSOs, the police, and youth workers all said to us that Winnington Youth Club do a great job.

“It’s ideal because it’s close enough to the centre of town that all the kids – from Witton, Leftwich, Winnington and Castle - get together for regular sessions, and it really keeps them out of mischief and creates an opportunity to offer them important services.

“Now, the government has its own map of areas of deprivation, based on its own data.

“It may be true that Winnington doesn’t appear on it, but only just. This means we would only be entitled to the money to improve facilities in Witton and Leftwich, but there aren't any.

"Winnington Youth Club is the only youth club in Northwich. There is nowhere else. 

“When I wrote to Michelle Donelan about it in September 2022, I just got a bland response from a civil servant that basically said, ‘computer says no'."

As a result of the decision to apply the criteria strictly, Cllr Cernik confirmed Winnington Youth Club will not able to take advantage of the funding.

He said Cheshire West are now likely to take forward schemes in Chester, Ellesmere Port, and Winsford instead. 

A spokesman for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), said: “The YIF is a targeted fund aimed at those areas that need it most.

“When choosing the criteria to determine the eligibility of places, we took care to choose transparent, publicly available data that best reflected the outcomes we want from the YIF.

“To choose the places, we looked at what data was available around the needs of young people related to the outcomes of the YIF and the provision of youth services.

“While we appreciate that this organisation is adjacent to an eligible area, we cannot make exceptions to national criteria and in this case that, unfortunately, means Winnington Youth Club is not eligible for YIF funding.”