A YOUTH bank is looking for more community projects to splash the cash on.

Weymouth and Portland’s youth bank has £5,000 to give out over the coming year and is now inviting bids for its third round of funding.

YouthBank WP is a grant fund managed by young people living in the borough, set up to support projects run by youngsters but also of benefit to the wider community.

Past schemes to have benefited include Weymouth Football Club for a football fun day and an evening of entertainment by youngsters of Royal Manor Theatre Playmakers.

YouthBank also stepped in with £500 after vandals destroyed plants and equipment in a community garden at Westham in Weymouth.

Bids of up to £500 are welcomed for the latest round of funding, with the closing date on Thursday, April 30. Projects could include anything from community gardens to arts projects.

Matt Stickley, 15, of All Saints School, Wyke Regis, has been with the YouthBank for six months. He said: “There is money there to be spent on whatever the community wants.

“Sometimes we get bids from people who say they want to go to McDonald’s but that is just silly. We get serious bids from the skatepark and we recently had one from a club for the visually impaired to do a show at Weymouth Pavilion.

“I think it’s good that the youth have a say in what we think will benefit the community, rather than people who are not in touch and don’t really know what people our age want to do.”

Newcomer Shannon Cox, 16, a beauty therapy student at Weymouth College, got involved through boyfriend Ryan Hope. She said: “I think it is really interesting and it’s nice to be able to help others. I would like to see the money going to people wanting to do things for the community, for everybody to enjoy.”

The scheme is funded and supported by the Weymouth and Portland Partnership, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and Weymouth and Portland Housing.

Partnership manager Louise Stewart said: “The purpose of YouthBank is to get young people more involved in local decision making and celebrate the work of young people making a positive contribution in the community.”

If you are aged between 11 and 21 and have an idea for a project that would benefit the community, visit weymouthandportlandpartnership .org for more information.