I WAS disappointed to read (Times, February 8) about the rejection of the youth café. I feel it would be an asset to the town, it would be close to the community college and so attract the youth.

The fact that it would be alcohol and drug-free must surely be a bonus. As a young person I can agree with the fact that the youth facilities in Tavistock are inadequate.

I am sure that my friends and I would support this project.

Sarah Greig (aged 16)

SURELY the council should be offering all the help it can to the Pelican Youth Café project! What a good idea this is.

It seems most extraordinary that the proposal to use the old library for a youth café project was last week rejected by the council. Don't the town council realise that the young people of Tavistock have for a long time been in dire need of a central place to 'hang out'? They need a place which caters to their tastes and gives them the chance to meet. During the past 13 years our own three children have grown through teenage in Tavistock, and the only places for them to go were the Meadows or a pub.

The council should rethink their priorities. Maybe they could obtain a higher rent by changing the use of the library to something purely commercial, but surely it is far more important to provide the young people of our town with the facilities they need.

We urge the council to give the Pelican Youth Café its most earnest and sympathetic reconsideration.

Nick and Jane Sanham

Heather

Down Road

Tavistock

I was present at the town council meeting on February 6 when the future of the old library was debated.

I felt very sorry that the Pelican Club application was turned down, thus carelessly passing over the opportunity to give the young people of the town a beneficial asset at very little cost.

The library is an elderly building that most councils would consider to be past commercial use. The fact that the council is considering spending money costing alterations which would provide three small units, probably resembling little more than kiosks, can scarcely be called good housekeeping — an attribute which they ironically, seem keen to have acknowledged.

The recommendation, which was eventually passed, after the wording was finally sorted out, seemed to enable the council to do absolutely nothing.

Hilary Williams

3 Downlea

Tavistock