Schemes to prevent young people from getting involved in crime or being excluded from school have been saved from the axe.

Leaders who have run the East Brighton Youth Inclusion Project for the past two years feared their scheme would run out of funding in March.

The project received £75,000 per year for the first two years, which continues until March, from the eb4u scheme.

The eb4u (East Brighton for you) scheme is a Government project to regenerate areas recognised as deprived.

Now the Government has announced it will fund the inclusion project for a further three years at £85,000 per year.

A team works with 50 young people aged between 13 and 16 who are most at risk from offending, truancy and exclusion from school in the Whitehawk, Moul-secoomb, Bates Estate, Manor Farm and Saunders Park areas.

It is one of 70 projects which make up a National Youth Justice Board programme.

A core of 50 young people have been identified as most at risk in East Brighton.

They take part on a voluntary basis in educational and recreational activities such as music workshops, motorbike mechanics, dance, art, film-making and skateboarding.

Celia Wilson, youth inclusion project manager, said: "The project addresses issues through focused work including anger management, masculinity groups, prison visits, sexual health and personal safety at work, one-to-one work and out of school support.

"Insecurities about funding after March meant we had to operate at a reduced capacity which had a negative impact on the young people.

"We have been successful and we're meeting our targets from preventing young people from offending and the money means we can apply for additional funding for other projects."