planned new community centre.

And Youth and Sport Minister Dennis Lister also promised that the centre, at Springfield, will be open within a matter of days rather than months.

Mr. Lister, who is also MP for Sandys North, made his comments after it was revealed that the Sandys Youth Community Club closed its doors for the last time on Sunday.

And the club's owner yesterday said he believed that the majority of the 345 members of the club would boycott the new facility.

Gerald Fubler added that he had been misled by Government officials into believing that his programme would be able to stay open in one form or another.

Last night Mr. Lister said: "I worked for a long time with many different individuals trying to find facilities and each of those individuals were of the view that we needed to find a centre for everyone.

"Springfield might not have been my choice but we were already committed to it. As the Minister I am going to take it forward.

"But we want the young people to be part of it. We want it to be for the entire community and that means for our young people and our senior citizens, not just for young people exclusively.'' Mr. Lister added that, although renovations on the new building were running behind schedule, it is still due to be opened some time next month.