MORE staff are needed at Ringwood youth facilities in order to best meet the needs of the town’s youngsters.

At a recreation, leisure and open spaces meeting of Ringwood Town Council, members were advised that at least three members of staff need to be working at any one time to ensure that the growing number of youngsters using The Place are sufficiently catered for.

There are now 156 young people on the register following ten new attendees in May.

In a report drafted for the meeting, it stated: “We need to recruit extra staff as we are limited to what we can achieve at the moment.

“We need three staff on duty at any one time as with two staff at busy times the role is reduced to monitoring and the capacity for expanding activities and learning is minimal.”

The report further states that staff should be encouraged to deliver life skills such as cooking, interspersed with fun sporting activities.

As part of the youth co-ordinator’s report, by Jenny Critchlow, it was recommended to the committee that additional youth activities should be introduced.

“Erin McMurty, who runs The Edge Project, which is a lottery funded project for the Wessex Heritage Trust, is working with a group for the summer and the aim is to enable them to be creative with ideas which they then showcase for the community.

“The aim is to use Ringwood Carnival as the showcase for the ideas created by the young people,” the report added.

Youngsters have been asked for their thoughts on the activities available and work has been carried out with Ringwood School to provide a place for some young people suffering from exam stress to relax.

The Place had been re-opened to the public in April after it was closed following a spat between the town council and the former cafe manager.

Providing it proves successful the town council is expecting to review the trial opening in September.