Organisers behind a youth centre in Southwold have hit the half-way mark in their bid to raise �60,000 for a new state-of-art facility.

More than �38,000 has been collected for The Loft project aimed at catering for 25 young people aged 11 to 18 in a converted loft space at the Stella Peskett Millennium Hall on Mights Road.

But they still need to find a further �22,000 to get the club up and running by the summer.

A vision day was held in January to give youngsters their say on what activities and facilities they wanted to see at the site.

Simon Pitcher, trustee of The Loft project, said: 'We have raised �38,000 since January, but we still need more.

'The vision day produced a positive response and we got a number of visitors that came to see what we were proposing.

'We probably had 50 people at that meeting. The fund raising is really coming together.

'We are not talking about an old fashioned youth club here. It is going to be something much more than that.'

The Loft needs to secure �60,000 to pay for renovation work on the building and the running of the centre for a year.

It is envisaged the youth club will run two to three days a week and be open before the school holidays this summer.

A fund raising day is being held at the Stella Peskett Millenium Hall on Saturday May 26 between 10am to 4pm, which will showcase the proposals.