Blackburn and Darwen youth hubs reopening dates revealed

Sunday, 12 October 2025 06:00

By Bill Jacobs - Local Democracy Reporter

The opening dates for two young people’s hubs after the completion of multi-million pound revamps have been revealed.

The expanded Darwen Youth Centre will be back in action in January after a  £3.3m upgrade.

And the refurbished Audley and Queens Park Children’s Centre will reopen its doors in December.

The dates were revealed by children’s services boss Julie Gunn at Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive board on Thursday night.

The two projects were among four in the borough to benefit from an £8m award from the government’s Youth Investment Fund (YIF) in 2023.

Cllr Gunn’s report confirmed that the leases to run the two centres had now been completed.

The revamped Knott Street Darwen hub will be operated by the Blackburn and Darwen Youth Zone with full responsibility for building upkeep, running costs and service contracts.

The Audley and Queen’s Park Children’s Centre will be run by the IMO Charity with a financial contribution based on exclusive and shared space which will have to maintain the building’s upkeep in exclusive areas, share upkeep of common spaces via council service charges and manages any additional service contracts.

The £3.3m project at Darwen Youth Centre has doubled the size of the  Knott Street venue by revamping the existing building with an extra storey to provide a new wellbeing area, creative workshop space, recording and DJ studio, gaming zone and multi-use spaces while the outdoor sports facilities have  also been upgraded.

Work started on the scheme in July.

Another part of the YIF grant £1m used to transform Audley and Queen’s Park Children’s Centre into a seven days-a-week youth hub offering a specialist mental health, employability and rehabilitation support.

It will boast a new youth suite, a flexible youth space, upgrades to the kitchen, a teaching kitchen, quiet area, workshop, new office space and a one-to-one room.

Work started in August.

Cllr Gunn said: “These two new Youth Investment Fund (YIF) developments align with the Council’s goals to help every child and young person reach their potential and to foster safer, healthier, and happier communities.

“It’s tremendous to see this happening.

“We will still own these buildings.

“Other services and groups will be able to use them as part of the leases.”

The August 2023 YIF grant award also saw £2.9m to provide Blackburn Youth Zone with a brand new employment and skills hub in the unused neighbouring Fuse Box building and £ 800,000 to revamp the Shadsworth Hub opposite the local park into a new youth centre offering refurbished indoor and outdoor spaces.
 

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