YOUTH leaders were celebrating yesterday after receiving a £22,000 windfall for a drop-in centre project.

Consett YMCA will use the cash to refurbish part of its old disco hall in the town centre and turn it into a community centre for youngsters.

The Street Cred CafT project learnt yesterday that they had received the grant from the Barclays Bank Community Investment Programme.

Billy Robson, of the YMCA, said: "The Street Cred drop-in cafT will provide a much needed facility for all the community, and we are looking forward to it being up and running as soon as possible.

"I am delighted that Barclays has recognised the value of the work we are doing in the local community."

The charity is working in partnership with Derwentside Primary Care Trust to provide a doctor's surgery at the centre.

It is hoped the centre wil not only offer teenagers a place to hang out, but also somewhere they can get confidential advice on such issues as teenage pregnancy, health and drugs.

The facilities will also include computers, a television, pool table and other games.

"It will be somewhere that young people of any age can sit in a nice environment and relax," said Mr Robson.

The refurbished hall will be a far cry from the original YMCA building - a wooden hut set up in Sherburn Terrace in 1919.

The group moved to its present premises in Parliament Street 30 years ago.

"Some of the hall is still nice but some of it is decrepit," said Mr Robson.

"This is a facility that we have wanted for a long time and is something that will serve the whole community across Derwentside."

Stella McRae, North-East community manager for the Barclays project, will present the cheque to Mr Robson and North Durham MP Hilary Armstrong in a ceremony to be held at the centre tomorrow.

Work on the centre will start in the next two weeks and it is expected to open early next year.