Issued 22.2.12                        For immediate use

 

 

A youth project run by local volunteers in south-west Leeds is under threat following the third break-in at its premises within a year.  The Cottingley Youth Project, an after-school club for 11 to 13 year olds, has had computer equipment stolen in three separate break-ins at Cottingley church and community centre on Cottingley Approach, Leeds 11.  

 

The Cottingley Youth Project was started last year as a part of the Church in Cottingley’s work in the community.  The computers had been used to help the young people at the Project do their homework but the break-ins have left the Project with just one computer between fifteen young people.

 

“We rely heavily on the small number of computers we have for everything from research to word processing” says project founder, the Revd Jude Smith.  “Each time we lose computers it directly affects Cottingley young people’s ability to keep up at school: an attack on the project is an attack on the wider community.”

 

The aim of the project is to provide a safe place for students in years seven and eight to come and complete homework with trained support.  After a year, the project, mainly staffed by volunteers, gained grant funding to employ a youth worker, but the series of break-ins has put the future of the Project under threat. 

 

In the latest break in, which happened on Friday or Saturday the 17th/ 18th February,  just two weeks after three computers were stolen, thieves broke a window at the church and community premises before making off with two machines.

 

Police say there is no forensic evidence to help- local witnesses are sought to help solve the crime. Anyone with any information should ring Holbeck NPT on the new non-emergency 101 number.