Southend-on-Sea youth club building ‘smashed to bits’ by vandals

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Stuart Woodward

BBC News, Essex

Danny Neville A wooden floor covered in broken glass and blue paint. There are also various bits of broken materials on the floor. There is a dark blue wall in the background.Danny Neville

As well as stealing metal pipes, vandals smashed glass and poured paint over the floors

A youth club that had its government funding for a £1.4m rebuild project withdrawn has been dealt another blow after the building was broken into and vandalised.

Thieves stole metal pipes and caused damage to toilets, fire doors and windows at the Lifstan Boys Club in Southend-on-Sea.

“They’ve smashed it to bits,” said committee member Danny Neville.

The club has been without a home after moving out in anticipation of the rebuild, as has the Southend Amateur Boxing Club.

Stuart Woodward/BBC Danny Neville wears a navy blue T-shirt with the Adidas logo on his right chest with the words "Coach Danny Nev" underneath, and on his left chest is the crest for the Southend Amateur Boxing Club. He wears a dark baseball cap and has a dark beard, and he is standing in front of a boxing ring. Stuart Woodward/BBC

Danny Neville – who is also head coach at Southend Amateur Boxing Club – said the vandalism was “gutting”

“They’ve flooded our disabled toilets, which were still running when we went there,” Mr Neville said.

“They’ve smashed the urinals off the walls, loads of copper has been ripped out – they’ve pulled the water tanks out.

“It’s just gutting, isn’t it? We’re already up against it.”

Other damage included paint thrown over the floors and walls, carpets ripped up and a table football set broken.

The club had been awarded £1.4m of funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s Youth Investment Fund to build a new premises at the site.

But after spending £200,000 on preparatory work and surveys, the rest of the funding was withdrawn by Social Investment Business, which distributes the grants on behalf of the government.

Volunteers said they were hopeful the funding would be restored to avoid having to try to renovate the existing building.

Stuart Woodward/BBC The Lifstan Boys Club building, surrounded by overgrown grass and weeds, with an overflowing green bin to the side. The building has a pebble-dashed front with two blue-framed windows and a yellow front door. The upper half of the building is a domed curved roof with blue metal fronting and the words Lifstan Boys Club in yellow writing.Stuart Woodward/BBC

The Lifstan Boys Club building – which the club moved into in the 1960s – was only meant to last 30 years

“The damage they’ve caused is probably going to double the cost of the refurb,” Mr Neville explained.

He added that the response from the local community and tradespeople to the break-in – offering to help clean up the damage – had been “overwhelming”.

“I’ve had so many messages and phone calls, people commenting on the post,” he said.

The Department for Culture Media and Sport previously said it had invested £145m into youth programmes for 2025-26.

Social Investment Business said it had to be confident projects could be delivered on time and represent “good value for money”.

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