'RAIDING' the early help for families budget to plough funds into a proposed Crewe Youth Zone could have a detrimental impact on children across Cheshire East.

That was the view of two Conservative councillors who told Cheshire East Council's children and families committee they were not opposed to the youth zone, but they were concerned about where the funding was coming from and the perceived inequality for young people across the borough.

It is estimated the youth zone will cost around £9m and £2.6m of that will come from the Crewe Town Fund, on the provision of an acceptable business case, and an estimated £4.2m could come from funds raised by Onside Youth Zone.

The children and families committee was discussing the fact £400,000 has been proposed for the zone in the Cheshire East budget for 2025/26, while the council is looking to save £424,000 next year by redesigning its early help services.

Poynton East councillor Jos Saunders said there was already perceived inequalities because Crewe was getting the youth zone while deprived children in other areas such as Macclesfield and Congleton wouldn't have access to the site because there was no local transport.

She added: "The other thing I've got, is my colleague [Cllr George Hayes] called it a raid on early help services – that £400,000 in 2025/26 which is going to be used through the restructure of early help budgets.

"We keep hearing how good early help is, how it can help families and it does exactly what it says on the tin – it provides early help and support for families who are experiencing problems.

"By doing so it also helps prevent taking children into care so, inevitably, it also helps save us money.

"So to me it seems completely counter-intuitive to take money from early help to fund this service which will help the young people in Crewe, but it will also have a negative impact on families elsewhere, including in Crewe, because some of the families who've got young children, they're going to be affected by that lack of early help as well."

Cllr Hayes said he had seen no business case for the youth zone, part of which could be sited at Crewe's Oak Street car park with other facilities at Mirion Street, the former home of Crewe Youth Centre.

"I would have anticipated the business case coming before putting revenue costs into our budget commitments going forward and I'm unsure how we've managed to estimate a revenue cost in the budget of £400,000 because we've not seen a business case to evidence or prove that," he said.

Committee chair Kath Flavell said the committee was not approving anything at this stage regarding funding, just making its comments.

"In terms of the inequality, if we didn't put the youth zone in then nobody would gain," she said. "Any schemes that you bring forward, have got to be done in one place first. If it's successful it might be something we can put on a future plan."

She added: "I don't want it to feel like a negative because we're not doing one somewhere else, it's still a very positive thing for Crewe."