Fears that youngsters in Pewsey will have nowhere to go when the youth club closes its doors next Friday were voiced at a meeting of the area board.

During the meeting on Monday Wiltshire councillor Laura Mayes, cabinet member for children’s services, gave a presentation explaining the new model for youth services.

In May Wiltshire Council confirmed it was changing the way its services for young people were operated, with responsibility for running youth centres devolved to the county’s 18 area boards.

Across the county there will be four community youth officers who help co-ordinate activities in each area. There will also be Local Youth Network and co-ordinating groups set up and they will determine how to allocate funding.

At the meeting Coun Mayes revealed that the Pewsey area, which includes 22 parishes, will have a budget of just over £30,000 for 2015-16.

Tanya Borg, a youth worker at The Shak, Pewsey’s youth club, said: “I have been a youth worker for 10 years and I’m concerned about the youths that don’t like to get involved in activities and just like to hang out with their friends. I’ve got a 14-year-old and I don’t want my daughter out on the streets so now I can’t let her go out.”

This was a view echoed by headteacher of Pewsey Vale School, Carol Grant. She said: “I understand that we’ve got this money but I think to run the kind of youth service that we’ve been running, which the students really value, will cost an awful lot more than that because you would have to have three youth workers per evening.

“The youth club is just a place for the youth to meet and socialise. I think there will be a lot of issues with young people just trying to meet and using the Co-op car park because there is nowhere for them to go.

“It is not as if we live in a big city and there are lots of options for places to go.”

There will be facilities for young people in the new Vale Community Campus but this will not be completed until 2016.

Coun Mayes said that there had been discussions about using the back room at Pewsey’s community fire station during the interim period.

She said: “The last thing we want is 14-year-old children walking the streets. It’s very important that there is an alternative for them.

“There’s also the whole area board grant budget, so there’s nothing to stop you using that for youth projects as well.”

There were also concerns that young people will struggle to get to a club because of planned cuts to the Wiltshire Council Nightbus service.