YOUNG people in York are to miss out on a multi-million-pound boost after the city was rejected for a major Government investment.

City of York Council expected to receive between £1 million and £5 million from the national “myplace” pot, set up via the Big Lottery Fund to pay for new leisure centres and meeting places for young people.

Officials missed the first deadline as they wanted longer to work on their plans, but the Government has now ruled it out of the second round of funding, saying only the most deprived cities are eligible.

Coun Carol Runciman, the council’s executive member for children and young people’s services, said the Government had changed the rules.

“It is clear now that they were desperately trying to back-pedal on the amount of money available for the second round after severely overstretching the first round of funding,” she said.

Coun James Alexander, the city’s young people’s champion, said: “York has only ten per cent of the required facilities for teenagers in a city this size and this was a development we desperately needed.

“I just hope the plans are not just dashed, but now become the framework for a longer-term goal. Hopefully, next time the council won’t miss the boat.”

Paul Murphy, the council’s assistant director for children’s services, said: “This is disappointing news.

“There was never any hint of this when the scheme was originally announced, and we will be writing to the Big Lottery Fund to point this out.”

He said the council remained committed to funding youth facilities in the city centre.

Mr Murphy said: “We owe it to the young people with whom we have been working and we have made this commitment in our new Children And Young People’s Plan.”

He said the myplace money would only have been a part of the total needed, and the council was now seeking other funds and said that, in the interim, a group of young people known as “Café II” had been awarded a £30,000 grant to set up and run a city centre café.