AWARD 'IRONY' FORCENTRE YOUNGSTERS.

Byline: By Anna Hammond South Wales Echo 

Youngsters at a doomed youth centre will receive a prestigious award next week for their achievements.

As revealed by the Echo, Butetown Youth Pavilion in Butetown, Cardiff, is being sold by its owners the Welsh Development Agency.

Those critical of the sale say it is ironic the youngsters will be handed the award from the National Assembly.

Cardiff council leader councillor Rodney Berman said: 'Clearly the Welsh Development Agency has been following the framework set down for it and the only body that can intervene is the assembly. I find it odd that we have a representative of the Welsh Assembly presenting them with an award when its future is very much threatened.'

The Pavilion, in Dumballs Road, has been leased to the council by the Welsh Development Agency since the winding -up of the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation (CBDC).

Discussions between the council and the WDA on renewing the lease, which expires in June 2005, have failed and the Pavilion goes for auction on Tuesday at Claridges in London.

On Monday night, youngsters from the pavilion are due at City Hall to receive a Youth Work in Wales Excellence Award from Education Minister Jane Davidson.

They have been given the award, sponsored by the assembly, for the various programmes that promote learning through sport. Only last week youngsters from the same youth club won a Diversity Award, from the Black Voluntary Sector Network Wales.

Despite the obvious good work at the centre, the WDA said it had a duty to sell assets inherited from the former CBDC to spend money on creating jobs or otherwise benefiting communities.

Coun Berman has called on First Minister Rhodri Morgan to stop the sale. He added: 'I really hope that something can be done even at this late hour to save the pavilion.'

First Minister Rhodri Morgan is in Holland attending the 60th anniversary of the liberation by Welsh soldiers of 's-hertogenbosch.