A YOUTH Club’s long quest to find a permanent home is set to be realised.

Hopes are high that youngsters from Innerleithen will soon have a fixed abode - at the former Nickel and Dime store in Chapel Street.

The club has struggled to find a suitable meeting place over the last few years - and at different times has been located in the Church of Scotland Hall, the Memorial Hall and at St Ronan’s School.

Peebles-based Tweeddale Youth Action now manages the Innerleithen club and are optimistic they have found a resolution to the problems.

They confirmed that the owners of the Nickel and Dime store, the Co-operative, have agreed they can let the property for free on a short-term basis. When funding is secured the youth club managers are confident this will become a permanent arrangement.

“The Co-op are trying to find long-term tenants for their property and while they are doing it they have agreed to let us have it for nothing on a month-by-month basis,” said locality manager Dave Hodson.

“We have heard that this might not be an easy let and our long-term goal is to get into the premises permanently. We are doing all we can to make it happen - we just need to secure the necessary funds.” Tweeddale Youth Action has taken over stewardship of the Innerleithen Youth Club from Scottish Borders Council and membership is thriving with 56 youngsters attending twice weekly.

Meetings had previously been in the Memorial Hall but the facilities were not suitable and the club has moved back to a building at St Ronan’s School.

Last year the club had to be temporarily shut down after a teenager fell off a bike and broke a collarbone during a fracas between youth club members and a rival group outside the community centre at St Ronan’s.

“It wasn’t ideal going back to St Ronan’s but the main reason we moved out of the Memorial Hall was that there was no disabled access.” Tweeddale Youth Action’s membership has now swelled to 105 - and some of the youngsters take the opportunity to go to club nights in Innerleithen and Peebles.

TYA has two initiatives known as Bike Punks and Food Punks that are being embraced by members.

The plan is for the Bike Punks to be run from workshops in the group’s main base at School Brae, Peebles and at the Nickel and Dime store in Innerleithen.

“Innerleithen will be the main hub for Bike Punks. There is plenty of room at the Nickel and Dime store to have the bike workshop and for the youths to use it as a meeting place,” said Dave.

“Our hope is to have a fully kitted bike workshop by the end of next year.” He explained that the biking initiative was the idea of the youths themselves. “They have a youth management committee and this is what they wanted,” he said. “We’ve got an expert, Alan Hunter, coming in who’s going to work with the young people on their riding skills. They will learn how to fix punctures, gears and all the other bike basics.

“There will be regular bike rides and those that don’t have bikes will be given a bike - ones that would have otherwise gone to the tip.” The club received a grant of more than £66,000 earlier this year from the Junior Challenge Climate Fund, a Scottish government initiative and Dave said: “Our aim is for the young people to be using their bikes more - this will reduce carbon emissions.” Food Punks is also proving popular - and there is now a fully-equipped kitchen in the Peebles base, allowing the youths to develop culinary skills.

“We are running a food project with a climate change focus - teaching young people environmentally-friendly optioins such as replacing beef with venison,” said Dave. “We are also running weekly cookery classes on a Wednesday in Peebles and a Thursday in Innerleithen.” Residential trips are planned to Callander and club members will visit the Falkirk Wheel to see energy use in action.

The members will also be playing an important big part in the Big Sunday Barbecue, a joint churches and community event on Tweed Green on August 16. “This event will show the young people in a positive light - they will be working their socks off to cater for more than 1,000 people,” said Dave.