A THRIVING youth club has been given the green light to move into a new home.

St Michael le Belfrey Church has been running Basement Central in St Saviourgate since March 2013 and has now been told it can move into a larger premises in Mansfield Street, off Foss Islands Road, in January.

Around 100 youngsters use the youth club every week but the new, larger, building will help them provide for more of the city's children.

The group was awarded a £15,000 grant from City of York Council to help leaders develop the service.

The easily accessible new building is on one level and will, for the first time, open up the service to families with pushchairs and prams who were previously unable to get into the old building's basement.

Lee Kirkby, head of youth and children's work at the church, said: "This will increase what we can offer to young people and children in the city, and particularly to younger families as well.

"Our previous centre was underground and so we will now be able to help families with prams.

"Many precious hours of work have been invested and tonnes of energy and enthusiasm has been poured into Basement Central, not forgetting the generous financial donations.

"Even if we were to drop everything right now, it would have been worth it. But in fact, we are in the great position that almost all of this investment can be transferred to the new venue."

Basement Central's new home has already taken delivery of an XBOX One games console from Leeds-based logistics firm Hermes.

Alex Willmott, Hermes social media manager, said: "As part of our company charitable fund, we are occasionally able to give small gifts to community projects.

"When we heard about a youth club not too far away from our head office that was growing so quickly that they needed a new venue, we felt it was an exciting time for them."