Camden News: Youngsters’ health centre forced to close, Fresh Juice Bar

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Camden News - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 24 April 2008

Fresh manager Avie Cummings outside the centre with some of its members

Youngsters’ health centre forced to close

A POPULAR healthy living centre and gym has been forced to close after council funding cuts.
The community-run Fresh Juice Bar in Highgate Newtown, was established to provide health advice, and offer affordable vegetable and fruit juices, a gym and structured fitness sessions for young people in one of the borough’s most deprived areas.
But organisers say grant cuts instigated by the Town Hall led to its closure on March 31.
With around 300 members and a waiting list to join, supporters say it was a focal point for young people.
Now managers are looking for alternative grants to reopen the centre, based in a shopping parade in Chester Road.
Highgate Newtown Community Centre chairwoman Maggie Cosin said: “The area has high levels of unemployment and deprivation. The Fresh bar was innovative. It was the type of service young people had been asking for and then used. This is a terrible decision.”
Centre users gathered on Monday night to vent their frustration.
Teenager Toby Green said: “I come here, train, learn about fitness and looking after myself. It has helped me.
“With the gym, we do not need to hang out on street corners – we have some where we can go. It could cause more crime if this is closed permanently.”
Fitness trainer Charles Browne added: “We offer a variety of activities. We have introduced Boxercise classes and it enables the young men here to get their frustrations out in a safe environment. People leave here happy.”
Highgate Newtown Community Centre manager Nick Roxan said they had applied for a £60,000 grant to keep the service going.
He said: “Fresh worked as a gateway. We got young people who would not come into a youth club coming in regularly.”
Education secretary Ed Balls condemned cuts to grants for youth clubs across the borough in Camden Town yesterday (Wednesday).

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