A popular youth group is desperately looking for a new home after being given notice to leave its current site.

The Shed needs to move away from its place on Folkestone seafront as the diggers move in to clear the area and begin work on the harbour redevelopment.

Project manager Ruth Tyler said there was “no animosity” with Folkestone Harbour Company, which has put the Folkestone Youth Project up for free for the past 11 years. But last week, the harbour company gave them notice to leave.

She said: “We understand fully. The harbour board have let us stay on site, so we can be grateful for that. We’ve always been at their courtesy and there’s no animosity at all. We thought we had the summer and had been putting a plan together.

“We really, really desperately need a place and the young people are going to be without a skate park and back on the streets, which is a worry to us.”

The group has been looking for a new home in the town for the best part of two years and hoped they had until the end of the year to find premises.

They were told in December that they had a year to move on, but the latest notice gives them three months to depart and only four weeks to dismantle the well used skate park.

But youngsters will be left with nowhere at all to skate and ride after the BMX track at the Back Door Training Area in Shorncliffe was also cleared last year.

Mrs Tyler said: “Young people live on wheels. We’ve been trying to find somewhere for a couple of years but it’s come to the crunch.

“We had a plan but we’ve gone for land and it’s gone to developers, because they’ve got the money. Our first choice is east of Folkestone but second choice is Cheriton.

“We are desperate, but we can adapt to change and show the young people how to overcome adversities in life."

See today's Folkestone & Hythe Express for the full story - including more from Ruth Tyler, interviews with the Folkestone Harbour Company, details of a petition and comments from MP Damian Collins, the youth group's chairman.