Reference
E/YM4/3/1
Title
File re Starlight Youth Club [largely Afro-Caribbean], Inkerman Street, including material as follows:
Date free text
1979 - 1986
Production date
From: 1979 To: 1986
Scope and Content
- closure and termination of staff appointments and request for new club to open without debts of the old [1979];
- cleaner's complaint about conditions at club and report of visit to inspect [1980];
- leader's report [1980];
- Management Committee letter urging useful community role of club, in particular giving a place for black youths to go instead of being in the Arndale Centre, and requesting extension of hours, with detailed Youth Service notes on subject, and Youth Service reply [1981];
- submission of Summer Programme [1981];
- concerned report of Area Youth Officer visiting club to find a political meeting in progress, including members of Socialist Workers Party, seemingly to discuss race issues, with letter from County Youth Officer to Management Committee secretary protesting and reply that the meeting was to discuss the Nationality Bill and was not intended as a political meeting [1981];
- Luton Community Relations Council request for youth leader at the club and citing recent riots in Southall [London] and Liverpool [1981] for the need to keep "the concentrations of black youths off the streets and out of the Arndale during the summer months" [1981];
- correspondence re late hours of a disco, the reason (supported by police) being that it was felt better to arrange lifts for participants to their homes in Marsh Farm rather than letting them walk through Bury Park in a group [1981];
- Councillor's praise for the club helping to ease many of the problems of Luton [1981];
- photocopy newspaper report re anonymous donation to help the club to open on Saturdays following Bedfordshire County Council cutback in hours to save money [1982];
- memo re poor security at premises [1982];
- Youth Leader's complaints at conditions, noting of deteriorating relationship with the police and request for daytime summer opening [1983];
- list of defects and County Youth Officer's response [1983];
- Area Youth Officer's summary of unemployed provision at club during Summer 1983;
- photocopied newspaper reports: re potential violence if Limbury Youth Club were closed; fears of violence following Bedfordshire County Council decision to close all youth clubs for six weeks during the Summer; and County Youth Officer's response to criticism [1982];
- summary of Summer Programme [1983];
- photocopied posters advertising club;
- detailed report by club on its own problems [lack of investment by Luton Community Relations Council] and County Youth Officer's
draft memo in response [1983];
- memos discussing problem of keeping unemployment scheme at club running in the leader's absence [1984];
- summary of club's Summer Campus 1984;
- memo re visit of Architect's Department officer to club to discuss Unemployment Project and his reception [1985];
- detailed report of organised hostility at club towards visiting Youth Service officer re temporary closure of the club due to structural defects which were being repaired and of members view that Bedfordshire County Council wished to close the club, report refers to an illegal occupation of the building by members as a protest and to violent incidents involving police and Afro-Caribbean youths in Arndale Centre [1985];
- letter from Youth Leaders outlining position at club during repairs [1985];
- photocopy newspaper cutting re West Indians' protest that Community Relations Council was ignoring their needs [1985];
- versions of poster advertising Christmas disco and letter from County Youth Officer expressing concern that the club was calling itself "Starlight Night Club" and that there was a raffle prize of a bottle of champagne and refusing permission for the event [1985];
- note re terms of reference and time-scale for intended Youth Service report on club [1986];
- notes of a meeting held to discuss possibility of forming a Management Committee at club [1986].
Level of description
item