DEVASTATED — that is the reaction following the shock news that Tavistock Youth Café has been forced to close its doors just 18 months after its official opening. The venue in Pixon Lane has been a huge success, with hundreds of young people enjoying the facilities on a regular basis. But the café has been closed for safety reasons, after extensive rot was discovered in the floor of the building. Abby Buckley, youth café manager, said: 'We are devastated — that's the only word for it. So many positive things have been going on and were about to happen and we just feel gutted. It's horrible. 'It's such an awful thing to have happened. It was a three-year project to get this going, it completely took over some people's lives, we raised £100,000 for it — there is a lot of grief.' Abby said further investigations were due to take place to determine the cause of the rot: 'We are desperately trying to find somewhere else, even if it was just to continue keeping the administration of things going. 'We had hundreds of young people on our books and regularly had 20 to 30 young people in the evenings we were open, but it was also used by a lot of other groups and projects which ran from it.' Abby said the youth café board would be deciding on a plan of action but in the meantime, the best way for groups or individuals to find out what was going on was to use the website. A programme of summer activities had been organised and would still go ahead. 'We have to look on this in a positive way,' said Abby. 'We will have to re-group and hopefully all the young people will all engage in it. 'We are getting a lot of support already, Devon County Council has been brilliant — we know the youth café recipe works now so hopefully something positive will come out of this. ' Christopher Kirwin, secretary of the youth café board, said: 'We owe it to the young people of Tavistock and the surrounding parishes that we do not allow this difficulty to prevent this most exciting project succeed. 'We will find a solution to the current problem and hope that the Tavistock community will support us in our quest.' Anthony Butcher, chairman, said: 'This couldn't have come at a worse time for us. We've really started to get the young people who use the café involved — we had some big plans and now they've all been shot away.' For more information on Tavistock Youth Café go to http://www.tavistockyouthcafé.co.uk">www.tavistockyouthcafé.co.uk Anyone who can help the youth café with emergency accommodation or financial help should call Abby Buckley on 01822 841741.