I READ with interest the reader's letter in your paper of August 24 (Time to give young people some services').

The Youth Service in Bury has come under criticism again for the lack of funding it provides for youth work in the borough. While I agree with some of the points made in this letter, I must come to the defence of the Youth Service with my particular involvement.

As a voluntary organisation, Prestwich Methodist Youth Association (PMYA) is responsible for the management and running costs of the Phoenix Youth Centre in St Mary's Park in Prestwich.

We have recently expanded the building to cope with the future work with young people in the Prestwich area. This would not have been possible without the funding that came from the Bury Youth Services, who are in partnership with PMYA. Their help and support has been invaluable to achieve the premises that now stand there.

However, some five years ago I was at a presentation given by Ivan Lewis MP when he rolled out the Government's initiative for Connexions, a radical shake-up of the Youth Services in the UK.

He made it clear that the new Connexions service was for ALL young people to engage with, from all areas of our borough.

The Phoenix Centre in Prestwich now stands as a flagship youth project and a Connexions information centre, yet I have still to see where the Connexions service is engaged in the funding of this centre.

We have a Connexions centre in Broad Street in Bury town centre to cater for young people in the north of the borough, and a lot of funding has gone into this building. Is it now not time that the same amount of funding was put into the Prestwich Connexions centre at the Phoenix, and in other centres within our borough?

PMYA, as a voluntary organisation, works extremely hard to cater for the needs of young people in the community. However we cannot do it alone, and considerably more spending on these facilities must take place if we are to fulfil the aspirations of young people in our communities. As chairman of PMYA I would simply ask that the funding around the borough is equitable.

We cannot afford to neglect the needs of young people. There are many voluntary organisations across our borough that are dedicated to helping with youth. We need to see many more full time youth workers on our streets and in our clubs, and if we neglect this area of work we will have failed this generation of young people.

Keith Barker, Chairman Prestwich Methodist Youth Association, Bury