THE race is on to avert a youth crisis in Ludlow.

Desperate steps are being taken to try to find a provider of youth services in Ludlow after a Shropshire Council scheme to put them out to tender ended in chaos.

With weeks to go before a new school term The Advertiser can reveal that there have been no bidders for the service.

An emergency meeting of the Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee was held below closed doors in a bid to find a solution.

Ludlow councillors Tracey Huffer, who chairs the town’s youth partnership, and Andy Boddington, have demanded that the requirement for a bidding process is dropped.

This would hopefully leave the Ludlow Youth Partnership able to find people to support the town’s young people without the need to go out to tender.

“We have a ticking clock because something has to be in place by the first week in September,” said Councillor Huffer.

“From the very beginning we have been very unhappy about the process and could have predicted that this would happen.”

Councillor Huffer said it was another example of young people being let down.

One of the steps that the Youth Partnership will take if it is allowed will be to see if some of the youth workers who were made redundant can be re-engaged.

But another serious problem will be the lack of money as Shropshire Council has only made £10,800 available.

“There has been no proper thought given to the problems involved in providing youth services in an isolated town like Ludlow where there are no bigger towns or cities close by,” said Cllr Boddington.

He said so much time had been taken up during the commissioning process that it had not been possible to do as much as is needed to provide services to young people.

Shropshire Council has decided that instead of providing youth services it is going to buy them in from other providers.

But Cllr Boddington said that not only was the principle questionable but it was totally unacceptable that there was no back-up plan in the event of no bids being received.

In July Shropshire Council announced that it was seeking bids in the Ludlow area to provide two youth sessions each week during term time for young people aged between 10 and 13 years and for those aged from 14 to 18 years.

Shropshire Council said its officers had met with members of the Ludlow Local Joint Committee and Ludlow Youth Partnership to talk about the outcome of the recent youth locality commissioning process, which had not resulted in any tender responses being received.

George Candler, director of commissioning, said: "However other alternative solutions were discussed at the meeting and more information on these ideas is being gathered this week to enable a decision on the best approach to be made.

"An announcement on a way forward will be made as soon as the work has been concluded."