Residents of an estate have warned children will be "terrorising the place" as their estate has been cut off from the world.
Gamesley, High Peak, Derbyshire, already has very limited resources, with the local pubs and cafes long abandoned.
There is a primary school, last rated as "Good" with 236 pupils on the school register at the time of the most recent inspection in April 2023.
However, there is no public transport for the local secondary school, which is three miles away in Glossop. It means children over the age of 11 are faced with an hour-long walk to school each day.
The pubs and shops have been long derelict
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The most recent blow came in February when The Hangout Youth Club at the community centre was forced to shut its doors due to Derbyshire County Council clamping down on costs, with some residents concerned it will increase anti-social behaviour.
Helen Thornhill, who runs the centre, said: "We will not let the community centre go without a fight. We are now going to give ourselves charitable status and raise funds so we can buy the centre for ourselves.
"We are hoping this will then give us the power to do more with the centre and give more back to the children and the community. We have a great space here that is underutilised."
She added that she was "flabbergasted" when she found out that it was closing, expressing fury that the decision was made from Derby city centre, 70 miles away.
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Gamesley Community Centre
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Dawn Stevenson, 55, is a special educational needs assistant and foster carer, who has lived in the estate since she was five years old.
She told The Sun: "I love the community here and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. My children have grown up and done well so I can prove that can happen, but something needs to be done to keep that going. I have grandkids who have to walk to school each day because there is no bus to the high school in Glossop.
"There are no lockers in school so the kids don’t take big coats with them and they walk to school in their blazers in all kinds of weather, getting sopping wet in the rain and staying sopping wet at school."
She added that older folk often are left "hanging around" because there are no facilities for them.
A spokesperson from Derbyshire County Council said: "Working with local communities across Derbyshire to help them to thrive is a key priority for us and Gamesley is no exception.
"We currently operate the Gamesley Community Centre building, with High Peak Borough Council owning the land it sits on, and while it is used by various community groups the council itself has not used it for many years.
"We have a duty to all our council tax paying residents to ensure we are using all our buildings and assets in the most effective and efficient way, and we are under a statutory obligation to let or sell surplus buildings to ensure we make the best of the resources we have.
"We fully acknowledge the value and importance placed on the centre by local residents which is why we’ve been working with local groups and have proposed its transfer into community ownership. We believe this move would secure its future.
"Community groups are now working together to form a charity, and then develop a business plan to take on the running of the building. This is really positive and we have been supporting the groups to put together a business case for taking over the building as a Community Asset Transfer (CAT)."
