Volunteers are urged to come forward and help keep a youth club in Warminster open.

Andy and Lynn Dangerfield, of Goodwin Close, Warminster, have been running a youth club at Funways in Warminster every Friday for more than a year, offering young people somewhere warm and safe to go.

Mr Dangerfield is keen for more people from the community to give up their time and help at the club, after having to turn away teenagers because of too few of volunteers.

The 39-year-old, a Colour Sergeant at Warminster Garrison, said: “Without volunteers and people giving up some of their time we can’t run the club.

“The other week I had to turn away six youths because we didn’t have enough volunteers.

“It’s difficult, but I spent five minutes with the kids explaining why we had to turn them away and how they can help us by asking people to be volunteers, like an older sibling or parents.

“The worst bit was this group hadn’t been for a fair few weeks, so it was quite hard to turn them away, but we can only do what we can do.”

The youth club currently has a membership of nearly 100 young people and is run in two age groups, for children aged five to seven and a second for those aged eight to 16.

“We used to do a 12 to 16-year-old group, but not that many were coming,” added Mr Dangerfield.

“With two groups it means they get an hour-and-half each to do activities instead of an hour.”

A range of activities are available, including a soft play area with ball pit and inflatable toys.

There is also a table tennis and pool table, a disco and team building exercises at the club, which is working with Youth Action Wiltshire to provide a safe place for youngsters to go.

Mr Dangerfield is keen that everyone gets the chance to attend the club on Goodwin Close, no matter where in Warminster they live.

“I would like to get a minibus for the youth club if possible,” he added.

“Then if there are kids who live on the other side of the town who can only come once a month because of the cost of a taxi, we can go pick them up and bring them here.”

For information visit http://www.funways warminster.com/youth-club/4579423469