Girls drive growth at Ash Green Scouts

Ash Green Scouts is to launch a second Cub Scout Pack and Scout Troop while moving to new premises in September 2014.

These exciting changes have been brought about by a huge increase in both young people and volunteer leaders. Ten Beavers are due to join Cubs in September but the Pack was already full and there was no place for them - hence the need to open a second one to ensure the Beavers could continue in Scouting.

And with 11 Cubs due to go to Scouts in January we would have been forced to open a new Troop then - or lose those young people as well, again due to the fact that the Troop is also full.

These developments will enable us to offer Scouting to some 140 boys and girls - a wonderful opportunity for the children in New Ash Green.

Unfortunately New Ash Green Primary School where the Group currently meets cannot accommodate the extra evenings so the decision has been made to move premises to New Ash Green Youth Centre from September 2014.

Although the main hall in the youth centre is smaller than in the school, we have made the decision to limit each section to a maximum of 24 (currently 36 in both Cubs and Scouts) which also means each child will receive even better individual attention.

There are many benefits to this move, including a usable kitchen (to teach cooking - and washing up!), land out the back for practising Scouting skills such as fire lighting and tent pitching, a separate meeting room for arts and crafts and plenty of secure storage for our equipment. We can still use the school grounds for outdoor activities and Wide Games.

Says Group Scout Leader Emma Jones: "These changes have been made possible thanks to the hard work of a talented and highly committed volunteer leader team of 17 people. Had we not been able to open the new Pack and new Troop we would have had to bid a sad farewell to more than 20 young people as we could not have found a space for them within the existing provision."