DESPITE what is being reported about the slowing down of County Services Crediton's Devon County Councillor, Nick Way, is hopeful that it will be possible to retain a working Crediton Youth Centre. Cllr Way told the Courier that he and many others felt that the decision to withdraw the facility at Crediton Youth Centre "was very disappointing." "However," he said, "there is certainly a will in the community to see the centre not close. "I hope that talks with people including Hayward's Primary School and Crediton Town council will come to a good conclusion and we will still be able to provide a youth service in Crediton." Devon will retain a professional youth work service and eight area-based youth centre hubs under new proposals agreed by Devon County Council on Wednesday. Local hubs will be based in Exeter, Exmouth, Bideford, Barnstaple, Newton Abbot, Totnes, Okehampton and Tiverton, with the latter being the closest to Crediton. The final decision included extra funding for communities to enable them to develop their own local youth offer using council buildings and other assets. Later in the year, a separate exercise will consider possible ways to deliver the retained service. A 10-month review aimed to ensure the county council's reducing resources were being used most effectively to target and support the most vulnerable young people - and that youth workers were fully integrated into the wide range of other early help services for children and young people across the county. A proposal was made for the council to withdraw completely from all universal youth provision, including all 32 existing Devon youth centres. Communities have been encourage to come up with alternative ideas in order to make the best use of council youth centre buildings and other assets. A proposal was received from staff interested in developing a staff mutual and more than 100 formal expressions of interest were received from voluntary groups and communities interested in helping to develop local community-based provision. This included several proposals for running county-wide universal services. The new proposal sees the retention of 53.5 full time equivalent (FTE) staff working in a targeted role with the most vulnerable and running open-access sessions operating from the eight strategically placed youth hubs. The service will also be tasked with helping to further develop local youth work networks and support local community provision. Outreach and mobile services will continue together with the Youth Participation and REACH teams and support will continue for the Duke of Edinburgh programme, Young Farmers, peer education and the Chances educational support service. A total of £100,000 will also be available for advice and infrastructure support with a further £200,000 for one-off community start up and seed funding grants to help communities develop local provision for young people. Devon County Council's Cabinet Member for young people, James McInnes, said: "This council is fully committed to continuing to protect, nurture and support our young people and we fully recognise the value of local youth services to our communities. "But with public funding getting ever tighter, we have no choice but to look very carefully at everything we do and to make sure we get the most from every penny we spend. "Open-access youth centres are not a statutory function and improving our targeted early intervention work with the most vulnerable young people has to be the top priority. "I believe our solution offers the best opportunity to both target our limited resources on the most vulnerable whilst harnessing the capacity and expertise of a professional youth service to help build local networks and support the development of local community based provision." Devon County Councillor Nick Way added: "I originally opposed the measures and still do. "It is very disappointing for many communities, including our own, that the county council is withdrawing services."