WARRINGTON'S abundance of pubs and clubs have come under scrutiny from students at Sir Thomas Boteler High School.

The Year 10 Youth Action group, with the help of teacher Nick Thomson, surveyed the town centre to highlight the number of nightspots and how close they are to each other. They compared the results with the number of facilities for young people in the town.

The group sent out questionnaires to schools asking for opinions and urging them to sign a petition for more activities for teenagers. They plan to present the results to the borough council.

Gary Rowland, the group's chairman, said: "There are so many pubs and clubs in the town centre with a lot for adults to do. But there is nothing for young people."

Member Leanne Lawton agreed. She said: "There used to be a roller-rink but that was turned into offices and the town centre cinema was turned into a pub. We'd like to see things like that in the town rather than more pubs."

The active group has now moved on to another project dealing with a major issue - drugs.

Gary said: "We have drawn up a questionnaire about drugs which we have issued to everyone in the school. Young people seem to be bit naive about the effects of drugs. We are going to analyse the results to help with drugs education."

The outspoken group members are all proud of their work for Youth Action and the message it sends out to other people.

"Youth Action shows that young people are as opposed to crime as adults and we are not responsible for it. We want to show that we are trying to change things," said Gary.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.