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Young people living in the Clayton Brook area have been handed the opportunity to make the most of a brand-new, multi-million-pound facility based in the heart of Chorley.

Inspire, Chorley Youth Zone is home to several state-of-the-art facilities for use by young people at just 50p per session including an underground football pitch, beauty salon, recording studio and fully equipped boxing gym.

Young people aged between 8 and 14 have begun boarding a temporary shuttle bus service setup by Inspire to take them from Clayton Brook to the Youth Zone and back every Wednesday to make use of the boxing gym and a number of sessions run by professional boxing coach, Reece Bretherton.

The shuttle service will be running throughout September collecting young people hoping to access Inspire in the hope of encouraging young people in Clayton Brook to use the £1 return bus service established by Stagecoach when the Youth Zone opened in 2018.

The £1 return service allows young people to use the 125 Stagecoach bus between Clayton Brook and Adlington for just a pound when visiting the Youth Zone.

Until recently Council-funded boxing sessions took place in Clayton Brook village hall for young people in the area however since announcing the new youth outreach programme in association with children’s charity Inspire, the sessions in the village have ceased.

Reece Bretherton, boxing coach at Inspire and Head Coach of Chorley Amateur Boxing Club, said: “Boxing is something that allows young people to have more focus and develop their own self-discipline.

“For a lot of young people, it’s an activity that allows them to release frustration in a more constructive and controlled manner, and what better place to do that than here? We’ve seen the stats that illustrate what a difference this Youth Zone has made to Chorley already.”

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Earlier this year, Lancashire Constabulary released statistics announcing that since the Youth Zone’s opening in May 2018, youth anti-social behaviour has dropped in Chorley by 49% and the Youth Workers at Inspire hope to improve on this statistic as they progress through their second year.

Ryan Powell, Youth Work Manager at Inspire, Chorley Youth Zone said: “Our Youth Zone was built for all young people in the Chorley borough and we want to make sure the centre is as accessible for our members as possible.

“Clayton Brook is home to a lot of young people who may not necessarily know about the facilities at Inspire and the bus service that allows them to visit for just £1, so we’re excited to let them see what’s on offer as they visit each week and become familiar with the staff and the space.

“Our new outreach programme funded by Chorley Borough Council will allow us to spread ourselves further afield and outside of the Youth Zone – into the community of these young people – where we will be able to affect an even greater change in Chorley’s next generation.”

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