A youth club set up after a spate of anti-social behaviour on an estate near Melksham could be forced to close unless it can attract more members.

Competition from another youth night running at a venue close by could spell the end of Bowerhill Youth Club, which meets in the pavilion next to Bowerhill Sports Fields once a week.

Melksham Without Parish Council chairman, Mike Mills, said in the last month the number of young people attending the Wednesday evening club had fallen from around 15 to just two.

He said: “We are not going to give up on it, but we need to make it clear to parents and people in the area that unless we get help it will close.”

He said that another youth night in the area, at the Boomerang Family Play Centre in Merlin Way, meant young people were going their too and he thinks this is why numbers are dwindling.

He said: “I think young people like something new and they have been going along there. Our other problem is with helpers as we have gone down to about two after some of the people that were helping us could no longer do so.”

The club, which runs from 7pm until 9pm on Wednesdays and caters for young people aged between 11 and 15, is run by volunteers and held in the pavilion which is owned by Wiltshire County Council. The parish council rents it out to run the youth club.

Mr Mills said it was set up originally after a spate of anti social behaviour on the Bowerhill estate, which led to young people asking for a youth facility.

He said a youth group had been operating on and off for around 10 years in the area.

Over the coming weeks youth workers from the Wiltshire Youth Service will be going out in the Bowerhill area to speak to young people and ask them if they still want the youth club and what would bring them back through the doors.

Mr Mills said the club has a host of facilities including a television, games consoles and the use of playing fields in warmer weather.

For more information about volunteering or joining the youth group call Mike Mills on 01225 708600.