A "WORLD-CLASS" youth club in Blackburn town centre has moved a step closer after council bosses gave it the green light.

A multimillion pound bid for lottery funding is to be prepared to build the new facility, similar to Bolton's famous Lads and Girls club.

It would be based in the £70million Cathedral Quarter development, where work is set to begin on site in 2009 and take three years.

Blackburn with Darwen's ruling executive board has approved a partnership between the council and Onside, a group set up to develop youth facilities in the North West, to prepare a Big Lottery funding bid by July.

The move has received cross-party support in the town hall.

The precise amount of the bid - which would cover the capital costs of building and setting up the club - has yet to be finalised, but the council has set aside £400,000 a year for ongoing costs once it is up and running.

Figures show Blackburn with Darwen has the highest proportion of under-19s in England - but council chiefs admit there is little for them to do.

Councillors have already visited Bolton Lads and Girls club, which was set up in 1889 to provide leisure facilities for boys working in local mills.

Girls were allowed to join in 1991, and the club recently moved into a new multi-million pound base, with facilities including a fully equipped gym, an indoor climbing wall, a performing arts studio and an internet cafe.

With more than 3,000 visitors each week, it is now the largest of its type in the country outside London.

Council bosses say improved facilities for teenagers was the most common issue highlighted by 2006 survey of the borough's residents.

The club would open out of school hours, from 3pm to 10pm Monday to Friday, and 10am to 10pm at weekends.

Bosses will look at different sites in the Cathedral Quarter this month.

Coun Colin Rigby, the Conservative leader of the council, said: "The development of the facility will contribute to our vision for a vibrant town centre and shows we are listening to the views of our young people."

Lib Dem Chris Thayne, executive member for children's services, said: "This will also be a place where young people will have a major involvement in the responsibility of organising and managing the way the centre works."

And Labour's Maureen Bateson, shadow member for children's services, added: "I welcome the government initiative and believe that it will be the type of facility young people have told us they would like to see."

Beverley Hughes, children's minister and for the North West, said Onside's work would deliver "world-class youth centres" across the region.