'Great future' for neglected Paignton youth centre

Parkfield to be part of new strategy for local families

A neglected building in Paignton that was designed to be a flagship for Torbay’s youth services could form part of a radical new strategy to help local families.

The £6 million MySpace building at Parkfield was built in 2011 with the aim of creating a hub for community youth services and included a BMX track, sports hall, climbing wall, recording studio, cafe and skate park.

But the building has never been fully used, and has most recently been home to the Medical Tuition Service, which caters for children unable to attend other schools because of their medical needs.

Now it is being put forward as part of a new approach to helping local families whose children have special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

Inspectors who looked at Send provision in 2021 concluded that Torbay’s services worked in ‘silos’ and did not collaborate enough. Now there are plans for a ‘locality’ service with the accent on all agencies working together for their local communities.

As part of that, a ‘vibrant and active use of the site at all times’ is proposed for Parkfield, with the council working with community and voluntary sector partners to draw up a strategy.

“We really must do better for our children and young people,” said Cllr Nick Bye (Con, Wellswood). “We are simply not making the progress we need to make, and we will be judged poorly.

“We are failing some of our most vulnerable young people. Some families have basically given up on school. We have got to do things differently, and do things better.”

And Cllr Chris Lewis (Con, Preston) added: “I want to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes we have done in the past.

“We’ve got to engage with the local community and the youth of Torbay. We’ve got to start as we mean to go, and if we do that, MySpace and Parkfield will have a great future.”