WATCHET'S badly needed youth club will not be up and running until next year, civic leaders were told this week.
Town council chairman Cllr Tony Bowden said the club would only open in early 2001 if everything ran smoothly and according to plan.
Certain councillors shook their heads in dismay as Cllr David Banks branded the situation "scandalous".
Last month a furious Cllr Bowden called for a public apology from West Somerset District Council for the delay and moved that the club be completed by no later than September.
This year, the district council will inject £17,000 into the project with the county council handing out £5,000 and the town council £2,000.
Cllr Sally de Renzy Martin, who is overseeing the revamp, is currently in negotiations with the Rural Development Agency for another £25,000 to meet the £50,000 needed to re-open the club.
She said: "Fund packages do not happen overnight but the end is very much in sight. I am impatient for it to be finished but I apologise if I have let people be misled by my enthusiasm."
The youth club on the Memorial Ground has been shut down for over a year but the 15-page application form for the RDA grant has yet to be filled in.
Watchet resident Dorothea Capper said at the meeting: "I am really, really unhappy to see the youth club still closed and this leads to vandalism because the youngsters have nothing to do but to get up to things.
"I know the wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly but I feel not enough is being done and after I wrote to the chief executive of the district council I felt he fobbed me off."
Mrs Capper said she had been informed that the youth club's refurbishment was on a similar time-scale to the Masons Arms pub in Williton.
"I decided to find out myself how near this matter was to being resolved and, evidently, Watchet Youth Club is lagging well behind the Masons Arms.
"Presumably the Masons Arms is in receipt of its RDA grant since it has now been open for two months," she said.
In response to Mrs Capper's dozen-question letter over the youth club, West Somerset chief executive Tim Howes wrote back to her saying: "Through the efforts of both council officers and Cllr de Renzy Martin, funding is substantially in place to renovate the premises.
"The council is now in a position to discuss the detailed specifications with the prospective contractors in order that the works can commence."
Cllr Banks said: "The trustees of the club had no option but to close it - the county council would not put anyone in there to work because of health and safety reasons.
"I think West Somerset District Council have dragged their feet and after the money it put in last year not a penny has been put in since and I find that scandalous."
l Angry councillors aired their outrage at the continuing vandalism in the town following a spate of crime during Watchet Carnival last month.
Cllr David Westcott, who is an active member of the West Somerset Police Community Consultative Group, said he believed the vandalism was connected to the absence of the youth club.
"Talking to the young people in the town aged between ten and 16, because this is the age group causing the trouble, I hear how they want a facility for them.
"I can't believe that this town will not see the youth club this side of the new year and as a council we should not accept it.
"Surely the district council can find that little extra bit of money which is so essential because the youth are expecting it to be open.
"They will react, and I don't blame them in a sense, because they want to go some where in the holidays or evenings if they don't want to go home."
Cllr Bowden said he would investigate the possibility of assigning a warden to patrol the town in a bid to stamp out crime.
l Cllr Loretta Wetlor slammed the contractor responsible for the sub-standard floral displays in Watchet.
She said: "I am very, very disappointed with the flowers and I'll hold my hands up if I have made a mistake but we have to take people on face value."
Cllr Wetlor said this year's autumn show would be "a lot better" as she was creating the displays herself.
l Cllr Stuart Walker has resigned from Watchet Town Council following a string of unexplained absences.
In a letter, he thanked councillors for their help and support and said he only regretted that he could have done more for the town.
Cllr Walker quit due to a change of career and was no longer living in Watchet which made attending meetings difficult.
The council has reinserted into its standing orders an absenteeism rule which had previously been omitted due to an oversight.
If a member of Watchet Town Council misses six consecutive monthly meetings without good reason, they will be deemed to have resigned.
l Cllr Paul Doran said he had been looking into the deficit of £100,000 incurred by Community Education Services in Watchet and Williton.
He said he disagreed with comments by Somerset County Council when it told him the matter had been dealt with openly.
Cllr Doran said: "It might have been dealt with openly but the only way to find out was going on would have been to have gone to County Hall to see the records.
Last Thursday, Cllr Doran held talks with deputy director of education John Rose which he described as very positive.
Following the subject's debate at the county council's scrutiny committee a report will be going before a meeting in September.
Cllr Doran said he had seen the report but said it was not fair to comment until all other parties had had a chance to read and discuss it.
l HTV West programme Get Escapes will be filming in and around Watchet next week for an episode to be screened in the spring.
The show, which features short breaks around the South West, will tie up with a tour of Dunster.
On Monday, councillors agreed that the town should look at its best for the film crew and The Esplanade should be as tidy as possible.
Cllr Bowden expressed his concern at the state of various roads in Watchet and said: "If you walk around the town there are a vast number of roads which are abysmal and full of rubbish."