A YOUTH club in Hook should only be used by youngsters from the village unless Hart District Council “dips into its pockets”, a meeting heard.

The Base youth club, in Ravenscroft, requested £2,250 from Hook Parish Council to pay for an administrative assistant for six months to work ten hours a week to help organise events.

The parish council already pays around £11,000-a-year for manager Jeanne Marie Steels to work 20 hours a week at The Base. She is the only paid member of staff at the youth club.

Councillor Tony Taylor, who introduced the proposal, said the new post was needed “as part of the evolution of The Base”.

But while Cllr Tim Colman praised the youth club, he criticised Hart District Council, which currently does not contribute any money towards the youth club.

He said: “What irks me enormously is that in all of my meetings with Hart they crow about their facility in Hook, and they say what a wonderful facility it is for Hart.

“My proposal would be we give funding, but not the full amount, and that we write to the parishes and Hart.

“We would tell them that our requirement will be that nobody from outside Hook uses it unless Hart dips into its pockets.”

However, the other members of the parish council voted down the idea.

Cllr Antony Hunter said there would be a danger that other parish councils would take offence and start charging people from Hook for their facilities.

Cllr Taylor added: “I would feel uneasy about filtering people coming into The Base.”

The meeting heard that 15 per cent of 300 young people who are members of the youth club are not from the village, coming from places such as Old Basing and Hartley Wintney.

Councillors approved the funding for the new post, and promised to review the funding in six months.

Miss Steels, manager of The Base, welcomed the decision.

She told The Gazette: “All of the events at The Base take time to organise, and I need to be out there doing a bit of PR work for us and to try and get more funding from parish councils and district councils.”

The youth club, which has facilities such as pool and air hockey tables, holds seven events a week and a weekly sexual health clinic for teenagers.