A Friday-night drop-in centre complete with the latest entertainment mod cons has officially opened its doors to the youth of Silsden.

The facility — at Silsden Youth Centre — is designed to deter young people from hanging around on the streets.

It offers a pool table, television, comfortable seats and a Wii computer plus other activities.

Craven Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) secured £10,000 to run the drop-in centre for children and young adults after receiving a high number of calls from residents about groups of teenagers gathering on Hothfield Street, Barrett Street and Aire View between 6-11pm. At a meeting of Silsden Town Council last week, Sgt Jo Beecroft, of Craven NPT, said: “The session will run from 7-10pm and we will be out on the street encouraging youngsters to go along. I would urge councillors to do the same.

“We are expecting it to start slowly as the word gets around but we are hoping to run a bigger media launch in July.”

Silsden Town Council contributed £3,695 towards the cost of running the centre.

l Silsden Town Council’s new mayor, Cllr Alan Edwards, requested that pressure be kept up on Bradford Council to look for land for allotments in the town.

The town council is yet to receive a response from Bradford Council about its search for land on its behalf.

l Cllr Chris Atkinson praised Bradford Council’s parks and landscapes department for its “excellent” work in the town. Silsden town councillors all gave positive responses to a questionnaire asking for feedback on the service it provides.