A YOUTH drop-in centre in Hatfield officially opened its doors today.

Space community centre, managed by the YMCA, has been set up on the ground floor of Queensway House in the town centre.

The idea of the Space is to provide a place where people can pop in to relax, meet new people and take part in programmes or training.

With its ethos to provide "a living room on the high street", it offers not just the young but people of all ages a chill-out room complete with laptops, sofas, a TV, a Nintendo Wii and music.

Refreshments are provided throughout the day and Hatfield Space will be open for the community to use.

Christine Novelli, Space development manager, said the development of the Hatfield facility comes following the success of the Welwyn Garden City project.

She added: “This is a really exciting project because as we found with the Welwyn Garden City Space it's for the community to use so we want them to tell us how it should be developed.

“At the moment the basement is very much a blank canvas but that's because we want the people to bring the colour and enable us to bring it back to life.

“We've only been able to come this far thanks to the help of all our volunteers, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, and the police.”

Christine said the YMCA were lucky enough to start off the chill out room with the help of John Lewis who has donated six laptops, a TV, sofas, and the games console.