“WE need our politicians to stand up and fight for us.”

That was the message last night from angry residents, young and old, who are fighting to save their local youth club from oblivion.

Scores packed into the Swaythling Neighbourhood Centre in Southampton to quiz their three ward councillors, one from each of the main three parties.

Passions ran high as police community support officers, children, parents and grandparents expressed fears for the future of young people in the Swaythling, Bassett and Portswood areas.

Although Swaythling Youth Centre, in Parkville Road, was handed a reprieve during the city’s worst ever budget cuts in February, the funding is set to run out by the beginning of next year.

By July there will be no paid and trained staff to run the sessions that keep youngsters off the s t r e e t s because they will have been made redundant along with more than 200 other council employees.

Pleading to the councillors, Chelsea Gover, ten, from Swaythling, said: “We do great things here. If our club closes in July we have nothing to do and will be unsafe on the dangerous streets.”

Jordan Nicholls below, 18, added: “We urge the three councillors of this ward to stand by the people who elected you.

“All the councillors here are educated people.

What will happen to the c r i m e rate in this area?”

PCSO Chloe Dawson, part of the Safer Neighbourhoods team for Swaythling, said youth clubs were proven to reduce trouble.

She said: “My personal opinion, and not that of the constabulary, is that it will cause more problems.”

A peaceful protest against youth club closures will be held outside the Civic Centre next Wednesday at 1pm as councillors come together for the annual city council meeting.

Campaigner Nick Chaffey called on the councillors to persuade the Labour administration to dip into the £2m it has put into reserves.

He said: “Are you going to stand up and fight for these services or are you going to keel over and implement the Government cuts?

“We need action now and people to stand up and commit themselves to make sure these services stay open.”

Labour councillor Sharon Mintoff vowed to put pressure on her own party to safeguard youth services in her ward.

She said: “I can guarantee you that. Can I guarantee that I can make people listen to me? No I can’t. I would be a liar if I said I could.”

Tory ward councillor Spiros Vassiliou said the £500,000 set aside for special projects by the former Labour council leader Richard Williams should be now be spent on saving services.

Liberal Democrat Maureen Turner said she would be tabling a motion at the annual meeting next week.

She added: “It will be interesting to see if you can get people from all the parties to vote for a motion saying ‘youth work in this city must continue'.