A PLANNED loan of £250,000, which Tadley Town Council was set to borrow to fund a new youth centre, is to be drastically reduced after councillors agreed to tap into cash reserves.

The town council has been able to dramatically cut the size of the loan by pledging to use £100,000 of its reserves towards the financing of the project.

As previously reported in The Gazette, the council last year asked residents to vote in a parish poll about how to fund the centre, which is to be built in an area of land adjacent to the community centre, in Newchurch Road.

A majority voted in favour of a proposal that the town council should borrow £250,000 from the Public Loans Board to assist with the funding.

But at their latest meeting, the council voted to reduce this amount to £150,000 and to offset the remainder in reserves against the loan. The council also agreed to apply for the Public Works Loan within two weeks.

When it is ready – hopefully later this year – the dedicated youth facility should open from 3.30pm to 9pm every school day and also throughout the school holidays.

It is also hoped that partner agencies will be able to use the centre to deliver counselling services around issues such as drugs, alcohol and sexual health.

The proposal to borrow only £150,000 allowed the council to reduce its precept. At the full council meeting, councillors agreed to a reduction in the precept of 1.4 per cent, based on the average household in band D.

The proportion of council tax payable to the town council has been set at a figure of £186,466.

This means each band D household in Tadley will pay £45.91 in the year 2015-16. Last year, people in a band D property paid £46.56.