TWO teenagers have won a grant of nearly £50,000 for their youth club.

Chloe Maskell and Shannan Burt, both aged 13, successfully bid for funding for the Shaftesbury Youth Club on Coppice Street.

And the young fundraisers may have acted in the nick of time, with a water-damaged roof and sagging ceilings among the items at the club needing urgent attention.

Chloe and Shannon sat down with club treasurer Heather Sanger to apply for funding from funds administered by the Dorset Youth Council.

"Young people have to make the application, and they have to be aged 13 or over. The form the girls had to fill out was very comprehensive," said Heather.

The treasurer is one of three generations of her family to support the club. Heather's father, Ron Panton, was the driving force behind the construction of its Coppice Street HQ.

"I used the club as a child with my brother, Ian. My daughters, Kia and Roxanne, are in their 20s now, but they used to go when they were younger," said Heather.

The girls' funding bid saw the Coppice Street club go head-to-head with a youth facility in Weymouth which wanted to fund a recording studio, said Heather.

But judges at the Dorset Youth Council identified the plight of Shaftesbury's youngsters as more pressing.

A new kitchen is among the facilities planned for the market town's youth centre.

Joseph Wildash, 19, chairman of Dorset Countywide Youth Council (DYCE), said he had felt compelled to visit the Coppice Street club.

"As soon as we saw the building, it struck us that this was a club that really needed the money.

"The roof is leaking, the ceilings are damaged, and they can't use their kitchen to prepare food because they've had to put a disabled toilet next door," said Joseph.

A spokesman for the Dorset Youth Council said it hoped to award the grant as soon as possible to allow repairs to be made before the damage worsens.

Shaftesbury Youth Club chairman, Tim Cook, thanked his young volunteers for their fundraising efforts, which he said would help deliver a first-class facility for the young people of Shaftesbury.