Arsonists strike at Yarmouth youth club for second time

Dominic BarehamThe future of a Norfolk youth centre is in doubt after arsonists struck for the second time in five months, destroying much of the building.Dominic Bareham

The future of a Norfolk youth centre is in doubt after arsonists struck for the second time in five months, destroying much of the building.

Arsonists torched Newtown Youth Centre, in Yarmouth, at 6am yesterday , destroying much of the equipment inside and damaging the exterior of the converted ship container, which had buckled in the heat.

The first attack happened in October and much of the equipment destroyed in yesterday's fire had been supplied by local businesses and holiday parks to replace items damaged in the first incident.

The centre's secretary Carl Harding was called out to the incident by one of the centre's volunteers, Amanda Goodrum, who had seen flames shooting from the building after driving past on her way to work.

He said: 'At this moment in time I don't know whether we will carry onl it is completely up in the air. It took a big pick me up to get us going before and to get us going again, it is going to take an even bigger pick me up.'

The centre is still waiting to receive �50,000 lottery funding from ITV's People's Millions fund to pay for a new portable building at the site.