THE new managers of a youth club in Winchester that faced the axe hope to reopen it.

Hampshire and IOW Youth Options is creating a new team of volunteers to run the Kayac club in Winnall.

They will be led by Nick Daniels, a Youth Options officer who is being seconded to the venue to get it back on its feet. The organisation stepped into the breach after the previous managers ran out of money last year.

Winchester City Council has given Youth Options an emergency grant of £20,000 to balance the books.

The club previously opened on Tuesday and Friday evenings, but the new managers hope to make more use of the Winnall Valley Road venue.

Mark Dixon, chairman of Winchester-based Youth Options, said that they nearly had the right number of people in place, and the doors were likely to open next week. He said the short-term target was to open the club three nights a week by the end of February.